Home Magazine The Yayoi Kusama mania!

Together with many artists, Kusama has shared a past of misunderstandings from the art world. In fact, there is always time for great revenge, and this is exactly the case of the Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama (90 years old). A condition that in the nineties saw an important turning point (also thanks to a project with Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton) which transformed the artist into a popular icon and into the richest female artists in the world history - she even overcame Damien Hirst, whose assets in 2018 amounted to 446 million dollars. 

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Yayoi Kusama. Courtesy Fosun Foundation 

 

Yayoi Kusama in New York

At this time Yayoi Kusama is at the center of umpteen exhibitions and projects in New York. For instance, her current solo show at David Zwirner New York will welcome an estimate of 100.000 visitors. Always focused on the theme of infinity, the exhibition is proposing her famous "Infinity Rooms", undisputed protagonists on Instagram - new organic-looking soft sculptures, cast aluminium relief works, a large pumpkin, and the installation Clouds, which includes 90 blob-like mirrored sculptures lying on the floor. She added to the already nominated series of "Infinity Rooms" the new installation "DANCING LIGHTS THAT FLEW UP TO THE UNIVERSE": a large hanging light globes that shift from white to red before abruptly going dark. 

In few days the artist will see also fluctuate her massive balloon (30 feet long, 36 feet wide, and 34 feet tall) during the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York City, together with a public of 50 million households. As if it wasn’t enough, during these days the artist's works are presenting in the new Chelsea outpost of Rome’s Mucciaccia Galleries, that is presenting 28 artworks by the artist dating from 1951 to 2008. Finally, after a short break, Kusama will come back to the "big Apple" during spring time (may) by making bloom her colors at Bronx Botanical Garden.

 

Yayoi Kusama – “I Who Have Arrived In Heaven” @ David Zwirner Gallery

 

Yayoi Kusama exhibition at David Zwirner Gallery in 2015. 

 

Yayoi Kusama in Europe for the season 2020-2021

After having just presented her big pumpkin in Paris at Place Vendôme, during the 46th edition of FIAC, the Japanese artist is waiting next year in three different Central European cities. This travelling exhibition will be inaugurated in September 2020 at the Gropius Bau in Berlin, later, in April 2021 will move to the Ludwig Museum in Cologne, concluding in October of the same year with the Beyeler Foundation in Basel.

This comprehensive exhibition will contribute new and vital aspects to the understanding of the complex oeuvre of Kusama. (Stephanie Rosenthal for Artnet).

 

Still, without a title, the exhibition will be organized in straight collaboration with Yayoi Kusama's studio and will see co-curatorship of Stephanie Rosenthal (Gropius Bau director), Yilmaz Dziewior (Ludwig Museum director), and Beatrix Ruf (guest curator of Beyeler Foundation). The exhibition will present several artworks from the mid-sixties. A period in which the work of Kusama was more appreciated in Europe than the United States or Japan, both two places dear to the artist, where she still divides and spend her time. 

Cover image: Yayoi Kusama. Photo © Yayoi Kusama, courtesy Ota Fine Arts, Victoria Miro, and David Zwirner.

Stay Tuned on Kooness magazine for more exciting news from the art world.

 

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