Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie is currently hosting a striking new installation by digital artist Mike Winkelmann, better known as Beeple, that reimagines tech titans as roaming robotic dogs with lifelike silicone heads. The work forces a conversation about how platforms and automated systems shape public perception—a timely debate as AI and social networks continue to influence what millions see and believe.
The piece, titled Regular Animals, fills a gallery with mechanical canines whose heads replicate figures including Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg and Jeff Bezos. The sculptures move through the space and occasionally release printed images, a deliberate, unsettling gesture meant to draw attention to how visual content is produced and disseminated today.
Beeple first presented versions of these cyborg dogs at Art Basel Miami Beach in December. The Miami showing sparked controversy online and, by several reports, most of the works were sold shortly afterward — five of the six pieces reportedly changed hands for about $100,000 each, while the Bezos figure remained unsold.
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German museum displays robot dogs linked to Musk, Bezos and Zuckerberg
What the work does and why it matters
Gallery statements and press coverage frame the installation as a commentary on the intersection of algorithms, celebrity, and media. By pairing familiar public faces with mechanical animal bodies, the artist draws a visual link between algorithmic behavior and the sometimes mindless circulation of images and narratives on platforms.
The installation carries extra weight because of Beeple’s profile: he drew mainstream attention in 2021 when an NFT compilation of his daily digital images, Everydays: The First 5000 Days, sold for $69.3 million at auction — a sale that helped propel the brief NFT market surge. That history means new works by Beeple are often read as cultural signals about the art market, technology and digital value.
- Artist: Mike Winkelmann (Beeple)
- Title: Regular Animals
- Venue: Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin (now on view)
- Figures depicted: Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, plus versions with Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, Kim Jong Un and the artist himself
- Materials/techniques: Robotic bodies with hyper-realistic silicone heads; printed images as part of the performance
- Provenance: Debuted at Art Basel Miami Beach in December; most pieces reportedly sold for around $100,000 each
- Themes: Algorithms, media spectacle, the circulation of images
Reactions on social platforms were immediate: the imagery proved polarizing, with some viewers praising its satirical bite and others unsettled by the lifelike rendering of real people. The work sits at a crossroads of contemporary art and tech criticism, tapping into ongoing cultural questions about power, spectacle and automated influence.
Beyond the immediate shock value, the installation prompts practical questions for artists and institutions: how should recognizable public figures be depicted in provocative works, and what responsibilities do cultural venues have when art blurs the line between critique and caricature? Those are not new debates, but they gain urgency when the subjects are high-profile figures tied to the companies that shape our online experiences.
For museumgoers and observers, Regular Animals offers a concise, provocative tableau: it is entertainment, commentary and a mirror held up to the digital ecosystems that now mediate much of public life. Whether viewers see satire, warning or spectacle, the piece keeps the conversation about images, influence and technology firmly in the present.
