Yayoi Kusama's New Exhibition 'One With Eternity' Opens in D.C.

Yayoi Kusama's One With Eternity Exhibition at the Hirshhorn Museum

Visitor experiencing Yayoi Kusama’s “Infinity Mirrored Room—My Heart Is Dancing into the Universe (2018),” part of the 2022 exhibition One with Eternity: Yayoi Kusama in the Hirshhorn Collection at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Photo by Matailong Du. Wood and glass mirrored room with paper lanterns, 119 5/8 x 245 1/8 x 245 1/8 in. (304 x 622.4 x 622.4 cm). Courtesy Ota Fine Arts and Victoria Miro, London/Venice. © YAYOI KUSAMA. Purchased jointly by the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. (Joseph H. Hirshhorn Purchase Fund, 2020), and the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, with funds from the George B. and Jenny R. Mathews Fund, by exchange.

As the most successful living contemporary female artist, there is always a lot of anticipation for Yayoi Kusama‘s next colorful project. After a two-year delay caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, her newest show is now open in Washington, D.C. Entitled One With Eternity: Yayoi Kusama in the Hirhshorn Collection, this exciting new exhibition includes two Infinity Mirror rooms (her first as well as her most recent), My Heart is Dancing in the Universe (2018), an early painting, photographs of the Japanese artist, as well as some of her distinctive sculptures.

“Kusama has built her practice around the ideas of celebration and inclusion,” Hirshhorn Director Melissa Chiu says. “There is no better artist than Kusama and no better reason to welcome visitors back to the Hirshhorn.” The variety of art that is on display at the museum reflects Kusama's trailblazing career as a young woman living and working in New York City, who was eventually able to break through the male-dominated art world with her avant-garde installations and sculptures.

Infinity Room—Phalli's Field was originally displayed in 1965, and features an entire room full of phallic-shaped fabric sculptures that Kusama made by hand. The mirrors installed on the walls amplify the effects of these red-dotted pieces, which in turn creates a hypnotic, seemingly endless effect. Kusama's newest room installation, Dancing With the Universe, also utilizes mirrors to enhance the kaleidoscopic colors of numerous polka-dotted orbs, which are suspended from the ceiling and placed on the ground. In addition to these immersive experiences, visitors can see one of the artist's iconic pumpkin sculptures, which celebrate the subject's “general unpretentiousness.”

One With Eternity: Yayoi Kusama in the Hirshhorn Collection will be on display at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C. from April 1 to November 27, 2022. Free timed-entry passes will be required for entry, which will be available on a first-come, first-served basis until all of the days and time slots have been claimed. Guests under 12 years of age do not require a pass.

Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama's new exhibition One With Eternity is now open at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C.

It will be on view from until November 27, 2022.

The exhibit includes Kisama’s iconic Infinity Mirror rooms…

Visitor experiencing Yayoi Kusama’s “Infinity Mirror Room—Phalli’s Field” (1965/2017), part of the 2022 exhibition One with Eternity: Yayoi Kusama in the Hirshhorn Collection at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Photo by Matailong Du. Courtesy Ota Fine Arts © YAYOI KUSAMA. Collection of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.

Yayoi Kusama, Installation view of “Infinity Mirror Room—Phalli’s Field,” 1965/2017, at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Stuffed cotton, board, and mirrors. Courtesy of Ota Fine Arts ©YAYOI KUSAMA (Photo by Cathy Carver)

Photos of the artist from past shows…

Yayoi Kusama, Installation view of “Infinity Mirror Room—Phalli’s Field,” 1965, in Floor Show, Castellane Gallery, New York, 1965
Stuffed cotton, board, and mirrors. Courtesy of Ota Fine Arts; Victoria Miro; David Zwirner © YAYOI KUSAMA (Photo by Eikoh Hosoe)

Her large pumpkin sculptures…

Yayoi Kusama, “Pumpkin,” 2016, at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Fiber-reinforced plastic. Courtesy of Ota Fine Arts © YAYOI KUSAMA (Photo by Cathy Carver)

…and more!

Yayoi Kusama, “Flowers – Overcoat,” 1964. Cloth overcoat, plastic flowers, metallic paint, and wood hanger. 50 3/4 x 28 7/8 x 5 3/4 in. (128.9 x 73.3 x 14.6 cm) Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC. Joseph H. Hirshhorn Bequest and Purchase Funds, 1998 (98.38). © YAYOI KUSAMA (Photo by Lee Stalsworth)

Yayoi Kusama, “The Hill, 1953 A (No. 30),” 1953. Gouache, pastel, oil paint, and wax on paper. 14 3/8 x 12 3/8 in. (36.3 x 31.4 cm). Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC. Museum Purchase, 1996 (96.6). © YAYOI KUSAMA (Photo by Cathy Carver)