Louvre Abu Dhabi’s ‘Art Here’ 2026 opens with works of six contemporary artists

    Abu Dhabi, Nov 13 (PTI) The works of six contemporary artists, including three Indians, respond to the theme of ‘Confluences’ for this year’s 'Art Here' exhibition at Louvre Abu Dhabi in the capital city.

    The sixth edition of the contemporary art exhibition, guest curated by the Museum of Art & Photography's (MAP) founding director Kamini Sawhney, opened on November 11 at the art museum and explores how the world is shaped by overlapping histories, cultures and ecologies.

    It is also the first time Indian artists along with those from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are participating in the exhibition.

    The museum’s annual exhibition, held in partnership with Swiss watchmaking brand Richard Mille, features works by Ravikumar Kashi, Reena Saini Kallat and Vivek Vilasini from India, Ahaad Alamoudi from Saudi Arabia, Almaha Jaralla from the UAE, and Shamin Sahrum from Malaysia.

    Under the curatorial vision of Sawhney, who sought to “build meaningful engagement between different cultures and communities, discovering ancient relationships and forging new connections”, the artists responded to the theme “Confluences” for this year’s exhibition.

    “Confluences builds on this intention, exploring how our contemporary world is shaped by overlapping histories, cultures and ecologies. It looks at how these encounters can emerge as sites of exchange, friction, hybridity and transformation,” Sawhney said in a statement.

    She added that the six selected artists brought distinct perspectives that “stand alone and yet resonate together”.

    “Their works respond both to the theme of ‘Confluences’, and to the museum’s architecture, drawing on the design of these spaces as sites of encounter and cross-cultural dialogue. ‘Confluences’ does not seek homogeneity but instead looks at how intercultural exchanges enrich communities allowing us to explore commonalities while celebrating differences,” the curator said.

    The six installations, presented beneath Louvre Abu Dhabi’s iconic dome, transform the architectural setting into “a site of encounter, inviting visitors to reflect on movement, memory, exchange and the interconnected histories” that link the Gulf region with the wider Indian Ocean.

    According to the organisers, while Kashi’s “Meghadutam” is an installation of suspended cloud forms in handmade paper, cradling messages in a multitude of Indic languages, Saini Kallat’s “Shorelines of Longing” draws from the Malayalam Kathu Pattu (“letter song”), a tradition that emerged alongside migration from Kerala to the Gulf from the 1970s onwards.

    Sawhney added that the ocean is a constant presence in the exhibition, “as archive, artery and witness to the complex relationship between India and the Gulf”.

    Vilasini’s “Dreamings in Arabia” comprises 28 glazed vessels suspended within a lattice of steel rods, each bearing a letter from the Arabic abjad alphabet surrounded by corresponding phonetic consonants drawn from the many languages spoken across the UAE.

    Souraya Noujaim, director, Louvre Abu Dhabi, said that contemporary art holds a special place at the museum, “complementing its universal narrative by connecting audiences with the ideas and experiences of our time”.

    “It shapes the cultural conversations of today while forging new links with the stories of the past. This year’s edition presents a remarkable group of artists whose works reflect on movement, memory and belonging, illuminating the human stories that have travelled across the Indian Ocean for centuries,” she said.

    Alamoudi’s “You Promised the World and the Tide Came In” is constructed from mirrored stainless-steel frames and draws on the visual language of the architectural grid, a system associated with planning, mapping and order.

    Jaralla's "Daria Dawlat" is an installation of sculptures made of cotton futa fabric, each representing the lower body in motion and placed across the shallow basins of Louvre Abu Dhabi, evoking the waters of the Gulf, while Sahrum suspends woven chatai mats from the museum’s dome in “Home is What We Carry”.

    Tilly Harrison, managing director of Richard Mille Middle East and Türkiye, said that this year’s artists have chosen materials that “shift, fade, travel and endure”.

    “Together they ask what a community carries, what it loses, and what it chooses to make permanent. This is precisely the ambition we set out to foster, commissions with the intellectual weight to stand within one of the defining museums of our age,” Harrison said in a statement.

    One of the participating artists will also receive the Richard Mille Art Prize worth USD 60,000.

    The prize aims "to support and showcase contemporary artists, in line with the museum's mission to connect cultures and spotlight regional talent".

    The winner of the Richard Mille Art Prize will be announced in December.

    The exhibition will remain on view till February 28, 2027.

(This story has not been edited by THE WEEK and is auto-generated from PTI)