YAYOI KUSAMA

Who is Yayoi Kusama?

Yayoi Kusama is widely recognised as one of the best-selling female artists of the 21st century. Born into a wealthy but allegedly unhappy family in Matsumoto, Japan, in 1929, Kusama felt discouraged from creating art by her mother and father. As a child, art-making became an act of rebellion for her.Her training as an artist began at Kyoto Municipal School of Arts and Crafts, where she studied nihonga—a form of traditional Japanese painting. However, the artist disagreed with the rigid hierarchy of the genre.

In hopes of finding success in the United States, she wrote to painter Georgia O'Keeffe (whose address she had found at the American Embassy in Tokyo) for advice on entering the New York art world. To her surprise, O'Keeffe replied, warning her of the difficulties of working in the city.

What works is Yayoi Kusama best known for?

In 1958, Kusama relocated to New York, where she immersed herself in the avant-garde movements of the time. Surrounded by Minimalism and Pop art and incorporating elements of both into her work, Kusama gained critical acclaim for her Infinity Net series (1958–ongoing)—canvases engulfed by hundreds or thousands of small, colourful loops of paint.

Kusama's 'Accumulation' Series

Yayoi Kusama's artwork often refers to the repetition of form, which offers her solace from the traumas she has battled since her youth. As a young girl, Kusama recalls her mother asking her to spy on her father, and she has described the phallic forms in her 'Accumulation' series, begun in 1962, as an act of reconciliation with her childhood fears.The 'Accumulation' series comprises soft sculptures made of found furniture covered in sewn, white phallic forms. Later, Kusama expanded these works into entire rooms, such as Compulsion Furniture (Accumulation) (c.1964), which featured phallus-covered furniture filling a room. These installations from the 1960s were precursors to the infinity rooms she is best known for today.

Kusama's use of mirrors and 'Infinity Rooms'

In 1965, mirrors appeared for the first time in Kusama's work with Infinity Mirror Room—Phalli's Field (1965), in which the floor of a mirrored room was covered in white, stuffed phalluses dotted in red.In recent years, Kusama's repetitive dot motifs have inspired a series of infinity mirror-room exhibitions. Yayoi Kusama: Infinite Obsession toured internationally and became the most visited art exhibition of 2015. In 2017, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, DC, debuted another touring exhibition, Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirror. Despite two-hour queue times, thousands of visitors lined up for a brief, half-minute experience inside the infinity rooms.

How has Kusama's life influenced her work?

A decline in Kusama's mental health in the early 1970s led her to return to Japan. In 1977, she checked herself into a psychiatric hospital in Tokyo, where she has lived ever since, with her studio located across the road.

In 2017, the Yayoi Kusama Museum was founded in Shinjuku Ward and is dedicated to her lifelong practice. The following year, the documentary Yayoi Kusama: Infinity, directed by Heather Lenz, was released, tracing the artist's career as a testament to perseverance in the face of adversity.

What are Yayoi Kusama's public works?

Kusama's vibrantly coloured sculptures can be found in numerous locations around the world. Notably, her yellow-and-black Pumpkin (1994) in Naoshima, Japan, was swept away by Typhoon Lupit in August 2021. In 2024, a towering 10-metre-tall sculpture by Yayoi Kusama, reminiscent of her iconic dot paintings and the reflective spheres of Narcissus Garden, was unveiled outside Liverpool Street Station in London.

Where have Kusama's works been exhibited?

Yayoi Kusama's works have been exhibited internationally. Notable solo exhibitions include:

• Yayoi Kusama, NGV International, Melbourne (15 December 2024–21 April 2025)
• Yayoi Kusama: 1945 to Now, M+, Hong Kong (12 Nov 2022–14 May 2023)
• Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirror Rooms, Tate Modern, London (18 May 2021–28 April 2024)
• Yayoi Kusama: A Retrospective, A bouquet of Love I Saw in the Universe, Gropius Bau, Berlin (23 April–15 August 2021)
• Love is Calling, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (2019)

Hazel Ellis | Ocula | 2025