Kusama Yayoi

Born in 1929 in Matsumoto, Nagano, Lives and works in Tokyo. Kusama experienced visual and auditory hallucinations from childhood, and began producing paintings featuring net and polka-dot motifs. In 1957, she moved to the United States, where her work took on forms ranging from the Infinity Net painting series and soft sculptures to installations incorporating mirrors and electric lights and public happenings, making her a leading figure on the New York art scene. She returned to Japan in the mid-1970s. In the 1990s, her personal cosmos of self-obliteration through obsessive repetition and the proliferation of single motifs came to be reappraised.

Retrospectives have been held at major museums in Japan and abroad, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 1998, while a large-scale solo exhibition, Yayoi Kusama is currently touring three European countries. The Yayoi Kusama Museum was established in Tokyo in 2017 and, based on the artist’s unique vision, presents her work and ideas on an ongoing basis.