Dataland AI art museum to open in Los Angeles on June 20, 2026

In short: Dataland says it will open in downtown Los Angeles as a museum focused on AI-generated art, with its first exhibition starting June 20, 2026.

What happened

Dataland is set to open in Los Angeles at 100 S Grand Ave, inside The Grand LA complex designed by architect Frank Gehry. The project is led by artist Refik Anadol, who has described the museum as a place for “human imagination.” He says the experience is meant to be multisensory, meaning it aims to engage more than just sight.

Dataland calls itself the world’s first Museum of AI Arts. It also describes itself as a broader “digital ecosystem” for data visualization, which is a way of turning information into images people can explore (like turning a spreadsheet into a moving map). The museum is privately funded and spans about 35,000 square feet, with five immersive galleries. A significant portion of the building is set aside for the technology needed to run the works.

The inaugural exhibition is titled “Machine Dreams: Rainforest.” It uses Anadol Studio’s Large Nature Model, which is an AI system trained on large collections of nature data. Dataland says those datasets are permission-based and come from partners including the Smithsonian, the London Natural History Museum, and the Cornell Lab of Ornithology.

Why it matters

AI-made art often brings questions about where the training material comes from and who should get credit. Dataland is trying to address that early by emphasizing permission-based data and “ethical AI” practices. Still, some critics argue that art requires human communication in a way a computer program cannot copy. The museum’s success may depend on whether visitors care most about the process behind the work, or the experience of being surrounded by it.

Source: NYTimes