The sky can actually become a work of art: James Turrell’s 100th Skyspace at a Danish art museum

Key highlights

• James Turrell’s new permanent work, “As Seen Below – The Dome,” has officially opened at ARoS Aarhus Art Museum in Denmark. It is Turrell’s 100th Skyspace and the largest Skyspace in any museum worldwide, measuring 16 meters high and 40 meters in diameter.
• Through a circular skylight and the interplay of natural and artificial light, the work turns the act of looking itself into an artistic experience.
• The work also marks the completion of ARoS’s decade-long expansion project, The Next Level, becoming Denmark’s newest cultural landmark.

American artist James Turrell, known as the “master of light,” has officially opened his new Skyspace work, “As Seen Below – The Dome,” to the public at ARoS Aarhus Art Museum in Denmark. It is the 100th Skyspace of his career and, at 16 meters high and 40 meters in diameter, the largest Skyspace in any museum worldwide. Turrell has also described it as his most ambitious work to date.

• Related reading: The world’s first AI museum, DATALAND, opens: Your heartbeat is part of the exhibition!

An artist who turns light into a creative medium

Images from IG / @arosartmuseum

Born in Los Angeles in 1943, James Turrell has spent decades making light and space central to his work. He earned his pilot’s license when he was young, and his many hours of flying led him to observe the subtle changes in the sky, horizon, and light across different times and weather conditions. These experiences deeply shaped the direction of his later work. Since developing the Skyspace series in the 1970s, Turrell has continued to challenge people’s perception of space and color through the relationship between architecture, natural light, and artificial light. As he has said, “Architecture brings the sky closer, and you become aware that the act of looking itself is art.” For him, the true work is not light itself, but the viewer’s process of perceiving it.

A space that turns the sky into art

Images from IG / @adammork

“As Seen Below” carries on the Skyspace series’ signature design language. Visitors first pass through an underground corridor before entering a vast circular domed space. At the center of the roof is an operable circular skylight that frames the sky as part of the work. A precise artificial lighting system allows natural light and color to continuously shift over time, creating entirely different viewing experiences. The work has three viewing modes: Open Sky, Colour Shift, and Twilight. Whether gazing directly at the sky, immersing yourself in pure color, or experiencing natural and artificial light merging at sunrise and sunset, each visit takes on a new character depending on the time and weather.

More than an art installation, it is a way to experience the world anew

Images from IG / @adammork

“As Seen Below” is also the most important part of ARoS’s decade-long expansion project, The Next Level, designed by Danish architecture firm Schmidt Hammer Lassen. Along with the new Skyspace, it adds an underground exhibition hall, entrance lobby, light corridor, and outdoor art plaza, giving the museum new visitor routes and public spaces. For James Turrell, the true subject of the work has never been the architecture, but every person who looks up at the sky. As the sky, light, color, and time continue to change, viewers also begin, without realizing it, to perceive space, time, and themselves anew.

James Turrell “As Seen Below – The Dome”

Dates: From June 19, 2026 (permanent exhibition)
Location: ARoS Aarhus Art Museum, Denmark
Admission: Adults DKK 200 / Students DKK 150

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