Louvre Abu Dhabi shortlists six artists for $60,000 Richard Mille Prize

The latest:

Six artists will build new commissions for Louvre Abu Dhabi’s Art Here 2026 after being shortlisted for the Richard Mille Art Prize, the museum announced. Saudi artist Ahaad Alamoudi, Emirati painter Almaha Jaralla and Dubai-based Malaysian artist and designer Muhammad Shamin Sahrum were selected alongside Indian artists Ravikumar Kashi, Reena Kallat and Vivek Vilasini. The exhibition runs beneath the museum’s dome from November 11 to February 28, 2027.

Details:

• The scale: More than 300 proposals were submitted to the sixth edition of Art Here and the Richard Mille Art Prize, according to Louvre Abu Dhabi. Entry was open to GCC citizens and residents, as well as Indian nationals, who became eligible for the first time in this cycle.
• The theme: The exhibition is curated under the title Confluences by Kamini Sawhney, former founding director of the Museum of Art and Photography in Bengaluru. It traces connections between India and the Gulf shaped by centuries of trade, migration and cultural exchange across the Indian Ocean.
• The jury: Sawhney also sits on the jury alongside Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan bin Khalifa, an art collector and patron; Guilhem Andre, director of scientific, curatorial and collections management at Louvre Abu Dhabi; and Maya Allison, founding executive director of the art galleries and chief curator at New York University Abu Dhabi.
• The curator’s verdict: Sawhney said the six artists impressed the jury with a willingness to innovate, spanning fragile assemblage to immersive installation. She called the selection a challenge and a privilege, and said she hopes the display will stage “a lively, if unexpected dialogue” between works that stand alone yet resonate together.
• The Gulf shortlist: Alamoudi’s practice explores history, representation and shifting ideas of cultural identity in Saudi Arabia. Jaralla works mainly with textiles and pigment, examining memory and inherited histories across the Arabian Peninsula and the Indian Ocean. Sahrum focuses on the visual language of everyday urban life shaped by movement, migration and community.
• The Indian shortlist: Kashi works across a range of media in an interdisciplinary practice. Kallat examines political and social borders and their effects on land, people and nature. Vilasini moves between digital and sculptural media, exploring politics, identity and systems of knowledge.
• The prize: The winner receives $60,000, to be awarded later in the season. Louvre Abu Dhabi did not announce a date for naming the recipient, and the artists will first develop their shortlisted proposals into finished works before the November opening.
• The expansion: Art Here and the Richard Mille Art Prize launched in 2021 for UAE-based artists only, then widened their geographic scope with each edition. North African artists became eligible in 2024, Japan was added last year, and India follows in 2026.

Background:

Louvre Abu Dhabi stages Art Here annually under its dome, pairing a commissioned exhibition with the Richard Mille Art Prize. The 2025 edition drew visitors to the same space, and each cycle has widened the pool of artists allowed to compete.

Between the lines:

The eligibility pattern is the story the shortlist tells: UAE-only in 2021, North Africa in 2024, Japan last year, India now. Pairing that expansion with a Confluences theme built on Indian Ocean trade routes gives the museum a cultural argument for a reach that is also institutional, positioning the prize as a regional platform rather than a national one.

What’s next

Art Here 2026 opens beneath the Louvre Abu Dhabi dome on November 11 and runs to February 28, 2027. The six shortlisted artists must deliver finished commissions before the opening, with the $60,000 winner named later in the season.