Rob and Eric Thomas-Suwall share how to build a collection by following your passion

In 2014 a local San Francisco artist suggested Rob and Eric Thomas-Suwall check out the David Hockney exhibition then on view at the de Young Museum. New to Hockney’s work, at the show the couple found themselves enraptured. ‘It was so colourful and so queer,’ Rob Thomas-Suwall tells Christie’s. Rob, an ENT surgeon, and Eric, a political theorist, live in Minot, North Dakota, and were relative outsiders to the art world, but on seeing Hockney’s exuberant depictions of gay life, they were inspired to learn more about contemporary art and start their own collection.

Since then, the Thomas-Suwalls have amassed an impressive grouping of painting and sculpture with a focus on queer and female emerging artists that has attracted international attention via their Instagram The Icy Gays. Their collection — featuring 55 works including paintings by Anna Weyant, Salman Toor and more — is the subject of a new exhibition, FULL DISCLOSURE, on view at the Plains Art Museum in Fargo through 20 October. Here we take a look at what’s shaping the couple’s collecting journey.

Have a point of view

Rob and Eric didn’t explicitly set out to build a collection centred on colourful works by queer and female artists, often with a surrealist, humorous streak. And yet as they bought more and more paintings that spoke to them, these themes emerged, uniting works ranging from GaHee Park’s otherworldly nudes (Kissing in the Tree, 2017) to Julie Curtiss’s hair hat sculpture (Spider, 2018), the latter reminiscent of Meret Oppenheim’s infamous fur teacup amongst other touchstones of feminist art.

‘I’m a political theorist, and a lot of the literature that women theorists have written is what speaks to me,’ says Eric. ‘There are shared struggles.’ He saw the influence of feminist theory in the art he and his husband were drawn to: ‘I came to find out that many of these artists are reading that same stuff, and it influenced my interpretation of their work.’

Both Thomas-Suwalls grew up in the American South — Rob in Alabama and Eric in Virginia — and they resonated with art that reflected the challenges of being gay in a culture that is not accepting, such as the paintings of Salman Toor, inflected by his experiences growing up in Pakistan. ‘A hugely rewarding part of this adventure is developing our personal relationships with the artists and being able to celebrate together, as they continue to grow and develop their practice,’ says Rob. FULL DISCLOSURE includes an audio guide from Rob Eric, which delves into many of these relationships and acquisition stories.

Follow your passion

The exhibition’s title, Rob notes, alludes to the couple’s open embrace of challenging and unconventional art, regardless of what others may think: ‘Full disclosure, as in, “Here we are. This is what we love. This is what we think is real. This is what we think is special,”’ he says.

The Thomas-Suwalls made their first acquisition in 2016. After reading about the New York painter Corydon Cowansage, they fell in love with her vibrant geometric abstractions and tracked down a work of hers that was on view in a solo show in New York. Cowansage’s Stairs #3 has pride of place in the opening section of FULL DISCLOSURE.

Find your community

Shortly after they acquired the painting, the pair connected directly with Cowansage via Instagram and a friendship bloomed. They visited her studio in New York during the city’s spring art fairs. ‘At that moment we realized we could be a part of this amazing community by supporting these incredible artists that are doing cool things,’ says Rob. Social media has been an invaluable tool for the couple to engage their far-flung community. The ‘Icy’ in their handle is an homage to their North Dakota home as well as their chilly wit.

Community extends to collaborators, too. The couple met the perfect curator for their Plains Art exhibition in Anne Marie Lemaitre at a dinner for Future Fair in New York City, where they bonded over a shared love of boundary-pushing contemporary artists like Dominique Fung. The show includes the Thomas-Suwalls’ two pieces by Fung.

Keep learning and pushing yourself

The couple continues to immerse themselves in art history and expand their horizons. ‘It’s fun to push yourself to support and celebrate challenging work,’ says Rob. Eric notes that while he started out interested in modern art, it’s been a thrill to learn about more conceptual work, such as the Light Strings of Felix Gonzalez-Torres.

They’ve found the art world much more approachable than they might have thought when they first visited the Hockney show. ‘A lot of people's preconception about the art world is that it's totally inaccessible. It's this closed world that they can't get into unless they have a ton of money. That's not true at all. You can get something great for 1000 bucks,’ says Rob. For those hanging by the edge of the pool, hesitating to dip their toe into collecting, he has some simple advice: ‘Just buy something. Live with it and figure out what you love about it.’