Yayoi Kusuma exhibitions in 2017: See the famed Japanese artist’s work in Tokyo and Washington DC
Two major art exhibitions of famous Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama opens next month in Tokyo and Washington DC
The renowned artist famous for her polka-dot installations is known to draw crowds. In 2014 Yayoi Kusuma was named the most popular artist in the world in a survey of museum attendance by The Art Newspaper. In 2016 the artist was named one of Time’s 100 most influential people, and in October, a room devoted to Kusama opened at Madame Tussauds Hong Kong, yet more evidence of her popular appeal.
She is currently the focus of a solo exhibition at the Sharjah Art Foundation running through January 9 and a retrospective at the Helsinki Art Museum that ends January 22.
The artist’s next step into the spotlight happens on February 22, when the National Art Center in Tokyo opens “Yayoi Kusama: My Eternal Soul,” running through May 22. One of Kusama’s largest shows yet in Japan, it will feature paintings from the artist’s ongoing “My Eternal Soul” series, which she has been working on since 2009. Approximately 130 works from the more than 500-work series will go on display in Japan for the first time.
Also on display will be art from throughout Kusama’s career, including her time in New York, such as her mirror rooms, polka-dot motifs and soft sculptures. A 4.5-meter by 5-meter pumpkin will also be featured.
More about the Tokyo exhibit can be found at www.nact.jp/english or at the Japanese-only site kusama2017.jp.
A day after the opening of the Tokyo show, the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington DC will launch “Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors,” featuring a selection of her key works, including several “My Eternal Soul” paintings that have yet to be shown in the US.
At the center will be six of Kusama’s “Infinity Mirror Rooms,” including the latest, “All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins.” The artist has produced more than 20 of these works throughout her career, creating kaleidoscopic environments that offer an illusion of infinite space.
As in the Tokyo show, the exhibition in Washington DC will include a monumental pumpkin sculpture, currently on show on the Hirshhorn Plaza and remaining there throughout the show, which ends on May 14.
Find out more about the Hirshhorn show at hirshhorn.si.edu/kusama.
