The fifteenth iteration of the KAWS HOLIDAY exhibition has made its landmark stop in the United Arab Emirates, deploying a colossal Companion sculpture along the Abu Dhabi waterfront. Spanning an impressive 32 meters in length, this inflatable art installation is more than a mere spectacle; it represents a significant intersection of global contemporary art and regional cultural dialogue, continuing the artist’s tradition of reimagining the familiar figure against unexpected backdrops. The project arrives as a collaborative effort between the artist, long-time partner AllRightsReserved, and Abu Dhabi’s Department of Culture and Tourism.
Positioned strategically at Souq Al Mina in Mina Zayed waterfront, the Companion sculpture is presented in a posture of profound, contemplative rest. Unlike previous floating installations, this land-based staging shows the figure reclining on its back while holding a strikingly large, glowing moon close to its chest. This installation is a pivotal anchor for the city’s Second Annual Manar Abu Dhabi 2025, a citywide light art exhibition exploring the theme, “The Light Compass.” The sheer scale and luminous quality ensure the piece functions as a temporary piece of civic architecture.
The use of internal light marks an important design and technology evolution within the KAWS HOLIDAY series, a concept first introduced with the illuminated version in Shanghai. By integrating illumination, the work expands its relationship with its environment, transforming the typically vinyl figure into a beacon. In Abu Dhabi’s dedicated light art setting, the luminosity of the figure and its glowing moon are central, deliberately engineered to interact with the reflective Gulf waters and the vibrant urban skyline.
The location and posture were precisely chosen for their context. Stretched across the edge of the pier, the 32-meter sculpture manages to feel strangely intimate despite its monumental scale. The arms are curled and the legs slightly bent, evoking a sense of stillness that invites reflection from the viewer, who encounters the figure almost at eye level. Framed by palm trees and the horizontal sweep of the port, the installation is a powerful example of how public design can soften and humanise industrial or commercial environments.
This particular configuration also carries deep resonance with Gulf ancestral traditions. By cradling the radiant moon, the moonlit figure subtly references the historical reliance of traditional dhow sailing vessels on constellations for navigation—charting tides and journeys by moonlight long before modern technology. Within the wider Manar exhibition’s focus on orientation and spatial memory, the Companion sculpture becomes a contemporary guide, linking the contemporary art movement directly to the local history of light as a cultural and practical marker.
Scheduled to be on view until January 4, 2026, the KAWS HOLIDAY ABU DHABI stop cements the global series as one of the most successful examples of ephemeral public design in the 21st century. Following spectacular stagings from beneath Mount Fuji in Japan to floating within Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbour, this newest presentation reinforces the artist’s ability to take a globally recognized figure and reshape its meaning through scale and context, offering a moment of playful yet profound engagement with the city’s architecture and cultural history.