- James Turrell has completed his largest installation to date, within the ARoS Aarhus Art Museum in Denmark
- Marking the artist’s largest Skyspace in a museum context, it measures 16 metres high and 40 metres in diameter
- James Turrell’s Skyspace installations are site-specific immersive art experiences that typically see minimalist spaces enhanced with an aperture in the ceiling or walls and manipulate the flow of natural light using artificial light
- As Seen Below – The Dome, a Skyspace by James Turrell will open on the 19th of June, 2026 at the ARoS Aarhus Art Museum in Denmark, with timed sessions taking place at sunrise and sunset
If there’s one contemporary artist whose work has the ability to transcend class and creed, it’s James Turrell. One of the pioneers of the Californian Light and Space movement during the 1960s, the American artist began his ongoing Skyspace series the following decade. The seminal concept sees enclosed built spaces punctuated with an aperture in the sky or a window in the wall, which allows visitors to view the sky outside. The natural light is typically manipulated with artificial light, working to alter viewers’ perceptions of the sky’s colour and depth.
Spanning over half a century, James Turrell’s Skyspace installations have appeared around the world, from the Guggenheim to a fishing village in Uruguay and the Live Oak Friends Meeting House, a Quaker meeting house in Texas. His immersive installations and idiosyncratic approach to light and space have earned him a fanbase that includes Beyoncé, Kanye West, Kendall Jenner, and Drake.
The newest—and largest—Skyspace installation to date has been unveiled at the ARoS Aarhus Art Museum in Denmark. Housed within an expansive dome spanning 40 metres in diameter and 16 metres high, it features a circular aperture at its zenith. There’s tiered brickwork lining the perimeter of the dome, with a concentric line of concrete seating the only objects present in the otherwise empty cavernous space.
The oculus allows the sky above to be viewed, with Turrell’s calibrated light sequences influencing the interior space and creating varied perceptions of the built environment and the world around it depending on the time of day. Titled As Seen Below, the installation opens on the 19th of June, 2026, coinciding with the summer solstice.
“With As Seen Below, I am shaping the very experience of seeing rather than simply delivering an image,” explains James Turrell. “The architecture brings the sky close, so you recognise that the act of looking is the work itself.”
Words by Esmé Duggan
