The faces of Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and artists Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol have gathered in one place. Their bodies, however, are all dog-shaped robots. These robots roam the museum floor, excreting images. This is the provocative installation art unveiled by American artist Beeple (real name Mike Winkelmann), widely considered a pioneer of digital art.
The Associated Press reported Monday that Beeple's solo exhibition "Regular Animals" is being held at the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, Germany.
The centerpiece of the exhibition is a pack of robot dogs fitted with silicone faces of celebrities. The robots photograph their surroundings with built-in cameras, then use artificial intelligence to transform the images into each figure's signature style before excreting them onto the floor. The Picasso robot dog produces Cubist-style images, while the Warhol robot dog delivers pop-art renderings. A robot dog bearing the face of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has also drawn attention.
Through the exhibition, Beeple confronts how algorithms are reshaping human perception. "In the past, our worldview was partly formed by how artists saw the world. Picasso's paintings, the way Warhol talked about pop culture, changed how we see the world," he told the AP. "Now our vision is dictated by 'tech billionaires' who own powerful algorithms."
"That's an enormous power that we don't yet fully understand," he added. "In particular, they don't need to lobby the U.N. or pass anything through the European Union parliament — they just need to change the algorithm."
Lisa Botti, the curator behind the exhibition, said, "AI is one of the phenomena having the greatest impact on our lives today." She added, "We wanted to exhibit Beeple's work because museums are places where society can reflect on these changes."
The exhibition was first unveiled at Art Basel Miami Beach 2025 in Miami in December last year. At the time, Beeple distributed the images excreted by the robot dogs to audiences along with free certificates labeled "100% organic, non-GMO dog poop." Some works also included QR codes for access to non-fungible tokens (NFTs), leaving open the possibility of future revenue generation.
Beeple, a graphic designer from South Carolina, is known for his "Everydays" project, in which he creates and shares a new 3D image online every day.
His digital collage "Everydays: The First 5000 Days" sold for $69.34 million (about 102.4 billion won) at a Christie's auction in 2021, earning him global fame. It marked the third-highest auction price for a living artist, after David Hockney and Jeff Koons.
