Installation view of Yayoi Kusama’s “The Hope of the Polka Dots Buried in Infinity Will Eternally Cover the Universe” 2019. Collection of the artist
(Photo: Sean Fennessy)
Fans of Yayoi Kusama will want to book their ticket to Australia, as the National Gallery Victoria (NGV) International has opened the country's largest retrospective exhibition of the renowned artist. Yayoi Kusama is a blockbuster exhibition that spans the Japanese artist's eight-decade-long practice. From public artwork and paintings to fashion and immersive installations, the exhibit hosts over 200 artworks.
As one of the most comprehensive exhibitions to cover Kusama's illustrious career, NGV's display draws from the artist’s personal collection, private collections, and premier institutions across Japan, Southeast Asia, and Australia. In addition to her signature pumpkins, polka dots, and Infinity Rooms, there is plenty for art lovers to enjoy. Featuring painting, sculpture, collage, fashion, video, and installations, the exhibition reveals the astonishing breadth of Kusama’s multidisciplinary practice.
“There are few artists working today with the global presence of Yayoi Kusama,” shares NGV director Tony Ellwood, “This world-premiere NGV-exclusive exhibition allows local audiences and visitors alike the chance to experience Kusama’s practice in deeper and more profound ways than ever before. We are indebted to Kusama for allowing us to share her worldview and creativity with Australian audiences.”
Moving in chronological order, Yayoi Kusama leads visitors on a journey through her life and career. Starting with her early paintings and drawings, created while still living in her hometown of Matsumoto, it then follows her as she moved to the United States in 1957. Her avant-garde practice in the late 1950s and 1960s is represented by archival ephemera, studio photographs, and personal correspondence. The second half of the exhibition features Kusama’s iconic pumpkin-inspired works, large-scale paintings, and sculptures made over the past four decades, including multiple room installations.
Kusama's work also spills outside the boundaries of the museum's galleries. These experiences include 60 plane trees wrapped in a pink-and-white polka-dot design just outside the museum. The artwork, Ascension of Polka Dots, was developed by Kusama specifically for Melbourne and is one of several free artworks that the public can enjoy. Other pieces and charge-free experiences include a site-specific artwork created for NGV International’s waterwall, polka-dotted inflatables in the Great Hall, and a children’s exhibition.
Dancing Pumpkin, now part of the NGV collection, is another free opportunity for visitors. The five-meter bronze pumpkin sculpture towers over the museum's Federation Court, with 11 sprawling legs that fill the space. Prior to the NGV installation, only two editions of the sculpture, one of Kusama’s largest and most ambitious imaginings of the pumpkin to date, have ever been shown.
Yayoi Kusama is currently on view at the NGV International in Melbourne until April 21, 2025.
NGV International is hosting one of the most comprehensive exhibitions to cover Kusama's illustrious career.
Photo: Sean Fennessy
From public artwork to immersive installations, the exhibit hosts over 200 artworks and covers Kusama's career in chronological order.
Installation view of “The Spirit of the Pumpkins Descended to the Heavens” 2017 (Photo: Sean Fennessy)
Photo: Sean Fennessy
Installation view of “Invisible Life,” 2000/2024 (Photo: Sean Fennessy)
Featuring painting, sculpture, collage, fashion, video, and installations, the exhibition reveals the astonishing breadth of Kusama’s multidisciplinary practice.
Installation view of the “Orgy Dress” 2002 (Photo: Kate Shanasy)
Installation view of Yayoi Kusama’s “Aggregation: One Thousand Boats Show” (Photo: Kate Shanasy)
Photo: Danielle Castano
Photo: Danielle Castano
The exhibition includes Kusama’s iconic pumpkin-inspired works, large-scale paintings, and sculptures made over the past four decades, including multiple room installations.
Installation view of “Chandelier of grief” 2016/2018 (Photo: Sean Fennessy)
Photo: Danielle Castano
Photo: Danielle Castano
Yayoi Kusama’s “Infinity Mirrored Room–My Heart is Filled to the Brim with Sparkling Light,” 2024 (Photo: Sean Fennessy)
Kusama's work also spills outside the boundaries of the museum's galleries, including 60 polka-dot-wrapped trees outside the gallery.
Yayoi Kusama’s Ascension of Polka Dots on the Trees, 2002/2024, on display along St Kilda Road, Melbourne (Photo: Sean Fennessy)
The exhibition also includes a site-specific artwork created for NGV International’s waterwall and the enormous Dancing Pumpkin installed in the museum.
Yayoi Kusama’s “Dancing Pumpkin” 2020. Purchased with funds donated by Loti & Victor Smorgon Fund, 2024 (Photo: Sean Fennessy)
Yayoi Kusama’s “Narcissus Garden,” 1966/2024 and “Untitled,” 2024 (Photo: Sean Fennessy)
Yayoi Kusama will remain on view at NGV International until April 21, 2025.
Photo: Danielle Castano
Installation view of “With all my love for the tulips, I pray forever” 2013 (Photo: Sean Fennessy)
Photo: Danielle Castano
Photo: Danielle Castano
