Guggenheim Abu Dhabi preview programme runs September at Manarat Al Saadiyat

Guggenheim Abu Dhabi opens 11 December 2026 and has scheduled a preview programme at Manarat Al Saadiyat and Louvre Abu Dhabi for September. The programme includes three artists connected to the museum: Agatha Gothe-Snape, Chant Avedissian and Rachid Koraïchi. The museum is a joint project of the Department of Culture and Tourism – Abu Dhabi and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, with architecture by Frank Gehry, located in Saadiyat Cultural District.

Gothe-Snape phone booth installation runs full month#

Agatha Gothe-Snape, commissioned by Guggenheim Abu Dhabi, has installed a phone booth at Manarat Al Saadiyat that asks visitors a series of questions. Responses build a collective archive of voices from Abu Dhabi. The installation runs for the full month of September with no registration required. Visitors may drop in during Manarat Al Saadiyat opening hours.

Three-day Avedissian pop-up requires advance booking#

Chant Avedissian, the Egyptian-Armenian artist whose work is in the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi collection, is the subject of a three-day pop-up. Talks, workshops and interactive activities run over three afternoons and explore the influences that shaped his visual language. Places must be booked in advance through the museum's registration page at guggenheimabudhabi.ae. Avedissian reinterpreted Egypt's cultural icons and collective memory through a contemporary lens.

Koraïchi talk covers abstraction and calligraphy#

Rachid Koraïchi, Jameel Prize-winning artist, joins curator Abdelkader Damani for a talk at Louvre Abu Dhabi on abstraction as a shared artistic language. The discussion covers calligraphy, geometry and contemporary practice, and the links between Islamic heritage and art being made today. Koraïchi was among the first names revealed in the Guggenheim Abu Dhabi collection. His work Le Chemin des Roses appeared in Seeing Through Light, the preview exhibition the museum held at Manarat Al Saadiyat across 2014 and 2015. His practice centres on calligraphy and incorporates Arabic script alongside Amazigh and Tuareg letters and mystical symbols.

Museum holds 28 galleries across 11,600 square metres#

Guggenheim Abu Dhabi presents modern and contemporary art dating from the 1960s forward, including painting, sculpture, installation, photography, moving image and new media. The interior holds 28 galleries totalling 11,600 square metres. An additional 23,000 square metres of outdoor exhibition space surrounds the structure within its cones and terraces. Galleries are arranged by connected periods, places and themes rather than chronological sequence. The museum states it will announce more talks and outreach events across the UAE in the months before it opens, with updates posted on guggenheimabudhabi.ae.