Beneath the floating dome of Louvre Abu Dhabi, where shafts of Arabian light dissolve into shadow, an evening of rarefied anticipation unfolded. Guests arrived in silks and fine linen, greeted by the soft shimmer of the Persian Gulf and the quiet grandeur of Jean Nouvel’s architectural masterpiece. It was here that Richard Mille and Louvre Abu Dhabi unveiled the latest chapter of their celebrated collaboration—Art Here 2025—an exhibition that has, in just five years, become a defining stage for contemporary art of global significance.
This year’s edition draws its poetic charge from the theme Shadows, inviting artists to explore the luminous tension between presence and absence, memory and transformation. From more than 400 proposals spanning the UAE, the wider Gulf, Japan and beyond, six extraordinary artworks have been commissioned. The exhibition will open on 11 October and run until 28 December 2025, transforming the museum’s vast plaza into a theatre of shifting light and layered meaning. Swiss-Japanese curator Sophie Mayuko Arni orchestrates this international dialogue, her vision bridging continents and cultures.
The distinguished jury reflects the exhibition’s cosmopolitan reach. His Highness Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan bin Khalifa Al Nahyan, eminent collector and advisor to the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs, chairs the panel, joined by Dr Guilhem André, the museum’s Director of Scientific, Curatorial and Collections Management, and Maya Allison, Founding Executive Director of the Art Galleries at NYU Abu Dhabi.
From Japan, acclaimed curator Yuko Hasegawa brings her signature insight, alongside Arni herself, weaving a critical narrative that is at once regional and global. Their deliberations have revealed a constellation of talent: Jordanian-Palestinian architect-artist Ahmed Al-Aqra, Emirati multimedia visionary Jumairy, Japanese audiovisual alchemist Ryoichi Kurokawa, Kuwaiti-born conceptualist Hamra Abbas, painter-filmmaker-poet Rintaro Fuse, and the architectural duo YOKOMAE et BOUAYAD, whose Tokyo–Marrakesh dialogue fuses geometry and dream.
Each artist responds uniquely to the enigma of shadow. Al-Aqra folds architecture into philosophy; Jumairy collapses the line between virtual and visceral; Kurokawa sculpts time with sound and light; Abbas refracts faith and memory through Islamic ornament; Fuse meditates on urban solitude; and YOKOMAE et BOUAYAD build a world where East meets Maghreb in patterned abstraction. Installed beneath the Louvre Abu Dhabi’s celestial dome, their works promise an experience that is at once intimate and monumental.
For Richard Mille, whose timepieces are themselves feats of mechanical art, Art Here is a natural extension of a devotion to mastery and innovation. “The quality and thoughtfulness of this year’s proposals show a growing maturity in the regional and global art scene and a strong appetite for dialogue through art,” notes Peter Harrison, CEO Richard Mille EMEA. Tilly Harrison, Managing Director of Richard Mille Middle East, adds: “What sets the Richard Mille Art Prize apart is the complexity of its curatorial framework and the calibre of the jury. By inviting perspectives from the Gulf, Japan and beyond, the Prize creates a dialogue that is both locally grounded and globally relevant.”
For Louvre Abu Dhabi, Art Here is an emblem of its mission to connect cultures. Director Manuel Rabaté reflects, “Now in its fifth edition, Art Here continues to grow as a platform for dialogue and discovery, bringing together emerging artistic voices from across the region and, for the first time, Japan. The calibre and number of proposals reflect the region’s creative momentum and the expanding reach of the initiative.” Curator Sophie Mayuko Arni underscores this ethos of exchange: “Fostering cross-cultural understanding sits at the heart of the museum’s mission and provides artists with new horizons to dream and imagine.”
From its inception in 2021, the Richard Mille Art Prize has offered more than recognition. It commissions original works in conversation with one of the world’s most striking museums, then places them before a discerning international audience. Art Here 2025 deepens that legacy, creating an exquisite interplay of art, architecture and the dance of light itself. As autumn dusk falls over Saadiyat Island, visitors will step into a living gallery where shadows speak, and where time—like a Richard Mille movement—unfolds with infinite precision and wonder.
Louvre Abu Dhabi – Saadiyat – Abu Dhabi – United Arab Emirates
