Louvre Abu Dhabi’s latest edition of Art Here continues to draw visitors under its iconic dome, where six striking contemporary works explore the power and symbolism of shadows. Presented in partnership with Swiss luxury watchmaker Richard Mille, Art Here 2025 opened in October and runs until Dec. 28.
Now in its fifth year, Art Here has become one of the UAE’s most anticipated cultural fixtures. The exhibition serves as a showcase for regional creativity and a platform for global collaboration, offering artists the chance to engage with the museum’s unique architecture and universal mission. Each year, it culminates in the prestigious Richard Mille Art Prize, presented to one of the shortlisted artists whose work best captures the vision behind that year’s theme.
Swiss-Japanese curator Sophie Mayuko Arni guided this year’s theme, “Shadows,” inviting artists to consider the delicate balance between light and concealment, presence and absence. The resulting installations transform the museum’s spaces into meditations on memory, time, and transformation, encouraging visitors to reflect on how art can render the invisible visible.
Manuel Rabaté, director of Louvre Abu Dhabi, described Art Here as “one of the museum’s most dynamic initiatives, celebrating the diversity of artistic voices from the region and beyond.” He said the 2025 edition deepens the museum’s dialogue with creators locally and internationally.
The exhibition brings together seven artists whose practices span architecture, sound, sculpture, and installation, each responding to the theme in a distinct and deeply personal way. Among them, Palestinian architect and artist Ahmed Alaqra presents “I Remember,” a sculptural work made of stacked acrylic cubes that capture fleeting urban shadows drawn from Sharjah’s architecture. Emirati artist and musician Jumairy offers Echo, an interactive installation that transforms myth and memory through sound, water, and reflection, evoking the story of Echo and Narcissus while inviting visitors into a meditative state.
Japanese artist Ryoichi Kurokawa’s skadw- envelops viewers in fog, light, and sound to evoke the Japanese concept of Ma, the beauty of intervals and negative space, while fellow Japanese artist Rintaro Fuse’s A Sundial for the Night Without End uses polished steel and cosmic geometry to reflect on time and eternity. Pakistani-born artist Hamra Abbas contributes Tree Studies, a series of stone inlay sculptures inspired by trees found in Pakistan and the UAE, arranged to mimic the layered shadows of palm groves. The architectural duo YOKOMAE et BOUAYAD, composed of Japanese architect Takuma Yokomae and Moroccan designer Dr. Ghali Bouayad, created a choreography of a cloud, dancing shadows, and a pavilion-like structure of woven stainless-steel mesh that sways gently under the dome’s filtered light.
For Richard Mille, the collaboration extends the brand’s longstanding commitment to the arts. “The shortlisted works this year are not only visually striking but intellectually rigorous, engaging with the theme both visually and emotionally,” said Tilly Harrison, managing director of Richard Mille Middle East. “That level of ambition is what makes the Richard Mille Art Prize a meaningful contribution to contemporary art in the region.”
The 2025 finalists were selected from more than 400 submissions from artists based in the GCC, Japan, and across the MENA region. Their works were chosen by a distinguished jury consisting of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan bin Khalifa Al-Nahyan, adviser to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and founder of UAE Unlimited, alongside Dr. Guilhem André of Louvre Abu Dhabi, Maya Allison of New York University Abu Dhabi, guest curator Arni, and Yuko Hasegawa of Kyoto University. The winner of the Richard Mille Art Prize will be announced in December.
As the exhibition enters its final months, Art Here 2025 continues to draw art enthusiasts, collectors, and curious visitors eager to experience how light, shadow, and imagination can converge under the Louvre’s dome. In doing so, it reaffirms Abu Dhabi’s role as a bridge for culture and creativity, a place where art’s quietest moments can illuminate the world.
