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Refik Anadol’s AI Art Hits Prime Time as He Prepares to Open DATALAND in Los Angeles

The broadcast reveals plans for DATALAND to open this spring, signaling rising institutional interest despite persistent doubts.

Overview

  • CBS News’ 60 Minutes profiled the 40-year-old Turkish American artist on February 22, highlighting his data-driven, AI-generated installations.
  • Anadol trains custom models on vast image datasets, including a project that used 200 million photographs of Earth with material from NASA.
  • His large-scale works have shown at MoMA, Guggenheim Bilbao, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Casa Batlló and the Sphere, with some pieces topping $1 million at auction.
  • He is building DATALAND, a 20,000‑square‑foot museum in downtown Los Angeles planned to open this spring with wearable devices for AI‑generated scents and, he says, future biometric feedback to alter works in real time.
  • Anadol says he now uses “ethically sourced” datasets with permission and provenance, as critics such as Jerry Saltz question artistic depth and artists like Molly Crabapple decry training on copyrighted art, with a class‑action lawsuit against AI companies still active.