When shadows become stories and light turns into language, you know you’re standing beneath the dome of Louvre Abu Dhabi. In collaboration with luxury Swiss watchmaker Richard Mille, the museum unveils the fifth edition of Art Here, a powerful showcase of six contemporary artworks that blur the lines between memory, time, and transformation.
Running until December 28, this year’s edition celebrates seven artists shortlisted for the Richard Mille Art Prize, each exploring the theme “Shadows” through deeply personal, cross-cultural perspectives. From the Gulf to Japan, from architecture to sound, Art Here 2025 reminds us that even in the absence of light, creativity always finds a way to shine.
Curated by Sophie Mayuko Arni, the exhibition transforms the museum’s spaces into a dialogue between visibility and concealment, form and feeling. It’s not just an exhibition, it’s an experience in motion, where shadow becomes metaphor and matter all at once.
The Six Artists Who Caught Our Eye (and the Light)
Ahmed Alaqra
The Palestinian artist and researcher captures the fleeting interplay between light and architecture in I remember. a light, a sculpture made of stacked acrylic cubes inspired by traditional mashrabiya designs. Each cube holds a frozen moment, turning ephemeral shadows into solid traces of memory.
Jumairy
An Emirati artist and musician, Jumairy’s Echo is an intimate installation of light, water, and sound. Inspired by the myth of Echo and Narcissus, it invites visitors to trade reflection for presence, a quiet meditation on absence, beauty, and the subconscious.
Ryoichi Kurokawa
The Japanese audiovisual artist redefines shadow as sculpture in skadw-, an ethereal composition of light, fog, and sound. Through the Japanese concept of Ma, the beauty of empty space, Kurokawa turns nothingness into poetry.
Hamra Abbas
Her Tree Studies installation bridges Pakistan and the UAE through 31 stone inlay sculptures inspired by native trees. Lapis meets marble as Abbas translates nature’s silhouettes into intricate, shadow-like stonework beneath the museum’s dome.
Rintaro Fuse
With A Sundial for the Night Without End, the Japanese artist reimagines time itself. Made of polished steel, his futuristic sundial aligns with past, present, and future North Stars, a cosmic reflection on eternity and the light we carry even when the sun is gone.
YOKOMAE et BOUAYAD
This architectural duo, Japan’s Takuma Yokomae and Morocco’s Dr. Ghali Bouayad, create a kinetic installation titled a choreography of a cloud, dancing shadows. Their mesh pavilion sways like a whisper, merging Tokyo precision with Marrakesh soul.
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