A Pioneer in AI Art

Long before artificial intelligence became a household term, Anadol was exploring its creative possibilities. In 2016, he became the first artist awarded the Google Artists and Machine Intelligence (AMI) Artist Residency, where he began developing what he calls “AI Data Paintings” and “AI Data Sculptures.”

“I’ve been exploring machine learning as an artistic collaborator since 2016,” Anadol told TRT World. “That was where I began developing the concepts of AI Data Paintings and AI Data Sculptures.”

His approach is revolutionary: he uses data as paint, algorithms as artistic tools, and light as material. By training AI systems on massive datasets—from historical archives to environmental data—Anadol creates mesmerizing, ever-evolving visual experiences that blur the line between human creativity and machine intelligence.

Major Achievements and Recognition

Anadol’s work has been featured at some of the world’s most prestigious institutions. In 2023, his piece Unsupervised was displayed at New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), attracting nearly three million visitors in one year. The Washington Post described it as an “early masterpiece of AI-generated art,” and MoMA acquired it into their permanent collection—making Anadol the first artist to have a generative AI piece added to the museum’s collection.

His 2018 project WDCH Dreams, created for the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s centennial celebration, transformed Frank Gehry’s iconic Walt Disney Concert Hall into a living canvas. Using 42 large-scale projectors, Anadol painted the building’s exterior with visualizations drawn from 100 years of the orchestra’s digital archives—587,763 images, 1,880 videos, and 17,773 audio files.

In August 2025, TIME magazine named Anadol one of 100 AI pioneers in the Innovators section and commissioned him to design the issue’s cover using decades of TIME covers as a dataset.

His accolades include:

• TIME100 AI Impact Award (2025)
• UCLA Edward A. Dickson Alumnus of the Year (2024)
• Lumen Gold Prize Award (2019)
• Lorenzo il Magnifico Lifetime Achievement Award for New Media Art
• German Design Award (2016 & 2017)
• Microsoft Research’s Best Vision Award (2013)

DATALAND: A Museum for the Future

Opening in spring 2026 at The Grand LA—a Frank Gehry-designed cultural complex directly opposite Walt Disney Concert Hall—DATALAND will span 25,000 square feet across five unique galleries. Co-founded with his wife and partner Efsun Erkılıç, a cultural researcher and artist also from Istanbul, the museum represents the culmination of Anadol’s life’s work.

“Los Angeles is the perfect city to launch Dataland,” Anadol said in a statement. “LA has long been a city that looks to the future in art, music, cinema, architecture, and more, and it feels natural to open Dataland here. To have a permanent space for us to develop a new paradigm of what a museum can be, by fusing human imagination with machine intelligence and the most advanced technologies available, is a realisation of one of my biggest dreams. To do so in a building designed by one of my heroes, Frank Gehry, is almost unbelievable.”

The museum will feature Anadol’s Infinity Room, his first immersive data sculpture originally created at UCLA in 2014. The piece—a 12×12-foot perfect cube with mirrored walls, ceiling, and floors—uses projectors to showcase pulsating black-and-white imagery. Over the past decade, it has been seen by over 10 million people in 35 cities worldwide. The DATALAND version will incorporate AI-generated scents and World Models, an advanced generative AI that understands real-world physics and spatial dynamics.

Commitment to Nature and Ethics

A distinctive aspect of Anadol’s recent work is his focus on nature and environmental consciousness. His Large Nature Model (LNM), described as the world’s first open-source AI model based solely on nature data, will be featured prominently at DATALAND.

In September 2025, Anadol opened Large Nature Model: Türkiye – Flora as a permanent installation at İş Bankası’s Museum of Painting and Sculpture in Istanbul. The project features endemic flowers from across Türkiye, based on extensive field research across 33 national parks.

“We wanted to create a ‘digital monument’ to nature,” Anadol explained to TRT World. “Everyone understands flowers intuitively, yet few realize how many species are quietly disappearing. We wanted to create an experience that is mesmerizing but also educational.”

Anadol’s studio has also raised over $10 million through NFT sales for charitable organizations including St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, the Alzheimer’s Foundation, and UNICEF. In 2023, the Winds of Yawanawá NFT collection, created in collaboration with the Yawanawá community of the Amazon, raised $3 million to support Indigenous cultural and environmental preservation.

Significance for Turkish-Americans

Anadol’s success represents a powerful narrative for the Turkish-American community. His journey from Istanbul to becoming a globally recognized artist and innovator demonstrates the contributions Turkish-Americans make to American culture, technology, and the arts.

His work bridges two worlds—honoring his Turkish heritage while pushing the boundaries of American innovation. Projects like Large Nature Model: Türkiye – Flora celebrate Turkey’s natural biodiversity on the world stage, while his Los Angeles-based studio employs a globally diverse team from 10 countries, fluent in 12 languages.

For Turkish-American organizations like TCUSAPAC (Turkish Coalition USA Political Action Committee), Anadol’s achievements highlight the importance of cultural representation and the need for recognition of Turkish-speaking Americans’ contributions to American society.

Looking Ahead

DATALAND will also host an Artist Residency program in collaboration with Google Arts & Culture, supporting three artists over six months to explore the creative possibilities of AI. The residency will conclude with a public exhibition at the museum.

“Dataland is a place where human creativity meets innovation, transforming the ordinary into the extraordinary,” said Efsun Erkılıç. “We are building a visionary museum that redefines learning and community, igniting the human spirit and fuelling a journey into the beauty of our collective memories—the world of data.”

As Turkish-Americans continue to make their mark across industries—from technology to arts to politics—Refik Anadol stands as a shining example of what’s possible when cultural heritage meets innovation, when Istanbul meets Los Angeles, and when human imagination collaborates with machine intelligence.