The high-profile street artist KAWS will take centre stage in a major Abu Dhabi public art initiative launching next month. KAWS’S work—which shows the artist’s signature Companian figure reclining on its back while lifting a lit moon in its hands—will feature in the second edition of Manar Abu Dhabi. The exhibition of light works takes its name from the Arabic for “light” or “guiding light”.
Overseen by the artistic director Khai Hori, twenty-three works across four locations will be included in this edition, all under the theme of The Light Compass. Fifteen works will be shown at Jubail Island, which organisers describe as the “anchor location”, including Emirati sculptor Shaikha Al Mazrou’s circular land art installation Contingent Object (2025) and a dome-like structure by the multidisciplinary Dutch artist duo DRIFT.
For the first time, Manar Abu Dhabi’s locations will include Al Ain, a Unesco World Heritage Site, where eight installations by artists including Maitha Hamdan and Ammar Al Attar, both of the United Arab Emirates, and Hamburg-based Christian Brinkmann will be displayed on the Al Qattara and Al Jimi oasis trails.
Brinkmann tells The Art Newspaper: “I’m showing Floral Resonance, an interactive audio-visual work built from a detailed 3D scan of a living plant on site, which responds through capacitive sensors to the proximity and touch of visitors, [helping to] shape the visuals and ambient sound in real time.
“Manar Abu Dhabi matters because it is a high-profile public art platform; Abu Dhabi’s outdoor context makes a living, responsive piece especially resonant.”
Manar Abu Dhabi is part of the larger umbrella initiative Public Art Abu Dhabi, which when it launched in 2023 had a budget of $35m. The emirate is keen to promote its cultural credentials and position itself as a major cultural hub via projects such as Saadiyat Island, home to the Louvre Abu Dhabi and the new Zayed National Museum which opens 3 December. Next year the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi is also due to open on the island.
- Manar Abu Dhabi, vaurious locations, Abu Dhabi, 1 November 2025 – 4 January 2026
