James Turrell, the American artist celebrated for his pioneering work with light and perception, is set to open his largest museum‑based Skyspace to date at the ARoS Aarhus Art Museum in Aarhus, Denmark.

The permanent installation, titled As Seen Below – The Dome, will be unveiled to the public on 19 June 2026, coinciding with the summer solstice. The work forms the centerpiece of a major expansion at ARoS, called The Next Level, which also includes a new underground gallery, the Salling Gallery (opened in 2025), and a permanent outdoor art space. Art collectors and fans of the artists are all excited!

As Seen Below – The Dome is designed as a monumental, contemplative environment. It frames the sky through a central oculus in a vast domed chamber, inviting visitors to experience light, space, and perception in a direct, immersive way. Unlike traditional museum displays, Turrell’s Skyspace is not about pictures or objects; the architecture, light, and sky themselves become the artwork. Visitors enter through a subterranean tunnel bathed in soft, colored light and emerge into a dome measuring approximately 16 metres high and 40 metres in diameter, larger than most of Turrell’s previous museum-based Skyspaces. Within the dome, carefully calibrated natural and artificial light interacts with the open sky, creating an ever-changing, meditative perceptual encounter.

Turrell has described the work as “shaping the very experience of seeing,” emphasising that the act of observation is central to the artwork itself. This installation reflects his decades-long exploration of light, space, and human perception, a practice that began in the 1960s and has resulted in nearly 90 Skyspaces worldwide.

His artistic exploration has always focused on perceptual experience, investigating how light and space can transform awareness and consciousness. From early Projection Pieces in the 1960s to large-scale architectural works like the Roden Crater Project in Arizona, Turrell has consistently sought to merge celestial phenomena, human perception, and architectural space.

Located at one of Northern Europe’s most forward-thinking art institutions, ARoS has built a reputation for ambitious contemporary commissions, and As Seen Below – The Dome is expected to become both a cultural landmark for Denmark and a destination for visitors seeking immersive, sensory art experiences. This Skyspace represents the culmination of Turrell’s lifelong exploration of light and perception, offering audiences a rare opportunity to encounter the sky, and themselves, in an entirely new way.

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