Artists: Hamra Abbas, Ahmed Alaqra, Jumairy, Ryoichi Kurokawa, Rintaro Fuse, YOKOMAE et BOUAYAD
Curated by Sophie Mayuko Arni
Venue: Louvre Abu Dhabi, Saadiyat Island, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates
Exhibition Website
Louvre Abu Dhabi Richard Mille Art Prize, Art Here 2025: Shadows
Louvre Abu Dhabi and luxury Swiss watchmaking brand Richard Mille opened the fifth edition of the Louvre Abu Dhabi Art Here exhibition, featuring six contemporary artworks by seven artists shortlisted for the Richard Mille Art Prize. On view until 28 December 2025, the exhibition reaffirms the museum’s commitment to supporting contemporary artistic practice from the region and beyond.
Curated by guest curator Sophie Mayuko Arni, Art Here 2025 invited artists to respond to the theme Shadows, exploring the interplay between light and absence, visibility and concealment, and the layered dimensions of memory, identity, and transformation. Reflecting the richness of regional creativity, this year’s edition welcomed over 400 proposals from artists based in the GCC and Japan, along with artists from the MENA region with a GCC connection.
All photographs courtesy of the Louvre Abu Dhabi and Richard Mille Art Prize.
“Such is our thinking – we find beauty not in the thing itself but in the patterns of shadows, the light and darkness, that one thing against another creates.”
– Jun’ichiro Tanizaki, In Praise of Shadows
“In Shadow, We Discover”
“Such is our thinking – we find beauty not in the thing itself but in the patterns of shadows, the light and darkness, that one thing against another creates.” – Jun’ichiro Tanizaki, In Praise of Shadows
After four editions of the Richard Mille Art Prize at Louvre Abu Dhabi, this year opens a new path eastward towards Japan. Inspired by the rays of light under the museum’s dome, this edition of Art Here invited artists connected to the GCC, MENA region, and Japan to respond to shadows embodied in the museum structure itself. On an aesthetic, philosophical, phenomenological, and psychological level, the artworks in this exhibition all resonate with the tension between light and shade, immersed in the context of Saadiyat Island and Abu Dhabi.
Within this cross-cultural framework, it is important to recognise that shadows occupy a central place in Japanese aesthetics. As Tanizaki elaborates in his seminal essay "In Praise of Shadows", traditional Japanese architecture is constructed around the subtle interplay of light and dimness. Darkness is not to be avoided but embraced; brightness is softened, and light is most appreciated when diffused by shoji screens. Nuanced perception is preferred over bright visual clarity.
Meanwhile, across the Gulf and Southwest Asia, shadows define our experiences in outdoor spaces. The harsh sunlight of the region has historically shaped architectural responses, from the vernacular areesh structures made of palm fronds to modern reinterpretations of the mashrabiya; both create intricate patterns of shade along streets or on buildings. Shadows, or shade, are functional and essential for survival here, creating lived-in experiences that many artists have captured with photography and poetry.
Shadows, or shade, are functional and essential for survival here, creating lived-in experiences that many artists have captured with photography and poetry.
Hamra Abbas opens the exhibition with her signature stone works. Placed in dialogue with the Damascus fountain courtyard, her Tree Studies suggest imagined shadows from leaves and vegetation indigenous to the United Arab Emirates and her native Pakistan. Carved and inlaid entirely in lapis lazuli, her Tree Studies trace silhouettes of trees of the wider region, resituating the precious stone – historically exported and extracted for its blue pigment – in a local context. The play of light across the deep blue surface activates these traces, inviting viewers to imagine a lush environment from immortalised shadows of leaves left behind.
Ryoichi Kurokawa takes a more abstract approach to capturing the ephemerality of shadows. His installation invites visitors to step into the depths of a long, dark corridor with a striking ray of light at the end. This walk is a meditation on the Japanese concept of “Ma” (間), interval or in-between space. Accompanied by a soundtrack, shadows appear and disappear at the meeting of light and fog. Here, darkness is generative rather than empty, a space where the imagination unfolds. Shadows allude to the illusion of presence in complete darkness – a presence that is felt, yet impossible to grasp.
The urge to freeze shadows might come from their inherent movement and change. Inspired by the constant movements of trees and clouds, Marrakech and Tokyo-based architectural duo YOKOMAE et BOUAYAD propose a new architecture engineered on rippling grounds. Their “cloud pavilion” mirrors the museum dome: rather than rigid and imposing, their steel mesh installation is participatory and context-specific, allowing visitors to stand in the middle of a man-made oasis of ever-moving shade.
The digital realm can present new challenges in experiencing shadows. Flat screens and projected content often eliminate the nuance of shade. Jumairy, however, subverts this tendency in Echo, an interactive work inspired by the myth of Narcissus. Reminiscent of water wells found in the desert, this digital well, equipped with motion sensors, reflects viewers’ silhouettes in the soft glow of LED lights. Like a mirage under water, juxtaposing the seen and unseen, Jumairy creates a live dialogue between the self and shadow self, ultimately culminating in the acceptance of dual identities.
The first architecture I understood wasn’t concrete or steel - it was the retreat of light. - Ahmed Alaqra
“The first architecture I understood wasn’t concrete or steel—it was the retreat of light,” writes artist-architect Ahmed Alaqra. Reflecting on his childhood in Sharjah, UAE, he draws on the memory of shade as belonging. Shadows from balconies, stairwells, kiosks, and cloth awnings become urban punctuation marks in his multi-part installation. From his many street photographs, he creates a visual “syntax” of shadows, digitising them into three-dimensional shapes, and encapsulating them in resin cubes. These suspended memories freeze light’s retreat, recreating memories of a city.
Finally, on the rooftop of the exhibition, Rintaro Fuse’s sundial links shadows to the measurement of time and cosmic movement. His sculpture features three gnomons - each aligned with a North Star from a different era: Thuban (past), Polaris (present), and Vega (future). This astronomical triangulation reminds us that the universe casts shadows, a reflection on planetary motion and deep time, built for a post-solar world. Situated against the skyline of Saadiyat Island – an island of museums and learning centers, an island of ideals, both realised and under construction, oscillating between timeframes and geographies – the sundial becomes a quiet invitation to recenter ourselves in the present moment, to perceive time’s immensity and eternity.
Situated against the skyline of Saadiyat Island – an island of museums and learning centers, an island of ideals, both realised and under construction – the sundial becomes a quiet invitation to recenter ourselves in the present moment, to perceive time’s immensity and eternity.
The now-iconic Louvre Abu Dhabi dome, designed by Jean Nouvel, was a strong catalyst for this meditation on shadows. This exhibition reveals how a local structure can inspire universal meaning. Shadows, as explored here, are not just visual effects. They are emotional, architectural, and philosophical spaces. They mark the passage of time, hint at presence through absence, and offer moments of pause in an increasingly one-dimensional world. No shadow can ever truly be the same. Through shade, we find form. Through darkness, we invite discovery. Through the transient, we access what is timeless.
- Sophie Mayuko Arni
2025, Dubai/Tochigi