Digital creator Beeple placed his likeness on a $100,000 robotic dog alongside Elon Musk and Picasso – and it was the first to be purchased
Beeple’s Latest Art Basel Sensation: “Regular Animals”
Digital artist Mike Winkelmann, better known as Beeple, has once again captured the spotlight with his newest installation at Art Basel Miami Beach, which remains open to visitors until Sunday.
His innovative project, “Regular Animals,” showcases robotic dogs valued at $100,000 each, each sporting uncannily lifelike heads modeled after notable figures such as Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, Jeff Bezos, as well as iconic artists Pablo Picasso and Andy Warhol. These mechanical canines wander within a transparent enclosure, using cameras mounted on their chests to snap photos. Artificial intelligence processes these images, and the resulting prints are humorously “excreted” by the robots. Among these prints, 256 are embedded with QR codes that grant collectors a complimentary NFT, delivered in bags labeled as “Excrement Sample.”
Beeple didn’t shy away from including himself among these famous faces, a decision he described as “ballsy.” According to the artist, his own self-portrait dog was the first to be purchased, a result that even took him by surprise.
This isn’t the first time Winkelmann has become a focal point in the art world. Four years prior, his digital collage fetched $69 million at Christie’s, igniting an NFT craze that soared before experiencing a dramatic downturn the following year.
