At Louvre Abu Dhabi, the fifth edition of Art Here opens under the theme Shadows. Designed by Jean Nouvel, the museum hosts six contemporary works by seven artists from the Gulf, Japan, and the broader Middle East and North Africa region, shortlisted for the Richard Mille Art Prize. Curated by Sophie Mayuko Arni, the exhibition reflects on the relationship between light and absence, visibility and concealment, memory and transformation. Among the highlights are I remember. a light by Palestinian artist Ahmed Alaqra, which transforms urban shadows into luminous architecture, Echo by Emirati artist Jumairy, a sound installation inspired by the myth of Echo and Narcissus, and skadw- by Japanese artist Ryoichi Kurokawa, an immersive environment of light and fog that makes tangible the concept of Ma, the aesthetic of empty space. Alongside these works, Hamra Abbas presents Tree Studies, a series of thirty-one stone sculptures depicting trees from Pakistan and the UAE, Rintaro Fuse envisions A Sundial for the Night Without End, a meridian for a world without the sun, and the duo Yokomae et Bouayad creates choreography of a cloud, dancing shadows, a pavilion of steel mesh that merges the artisanal traditions of Tokyo and Marrakech. Museum director Manuel Rabaté emphasized how Art Here has become one of Louvre Abu Dhabi’s most vital programs, uniting artists, cultures, and languages within a platform of exchange and discovery. The exhibition reaffirms the museum’s role as a crossroads of international creativity and a laboratory of ideas, where the light of the Gulf meets the visions of the Far East, and where art becomes a space for universal contemplation.
