Portrait of Yayoi Kusama (Photo: Yusuke Miyazaki) © Yayoi Kusama
The world lost the great Yayoi Kusama on August 14, 2026, at age 97. But artists’ legacies live on, in part, through the works they created throughout their lives. Kusama is no different. In fact, she founded the Yayoi Kusama Museum (run by the Yayoi Kusama Foundation) in 2017. Located in Tokyo, it exhibits her works and related materials that contribute to artistic development. It hosts two exhibitions each year with her artwork, lectures, and other events, and the institution has recently opened its first show after her death: The Light Spreads Out, and Glittering Things Start Appearing All Around Me.
Kusama was public about her struggles with mental health. Since childhood, she had endured panic attacks and hallucinations. She described her childhood hallucinations as “radiance,” “scintillation,” and “auras.” The museum explains, “The radiance emanating from her inner visions seems to transcend representations of light in the visible world and to inhabit the works themselves.”
Light is the conceptual anchor of The Light Spreads Out. The show features works created throughout her career, all united by illumination. In 1950s drawings and 1970s collages, light spreads from the darkness. Her paintings from the 1980s onward are bright; here, light is less literal and more the feeling these hues evoke. This is seen in paintings created in the years before her death, where metallic surfaces grace the canvas.
Beyond two dimensions, The Light Spreads Out includes Kusama’s immersive installations for which she’s so well known. Her mirror rooms create infinite space through reflective surfaces and light, placing the visitor at the center of a sparkling world with no end or beginning. The exhibition also includes large-scale sculptures covered in mosaic tiles and metallic leaf.
Taken together, the exhibition demonstrates how one subject can exist—and continually reinvent itself—throughout an artist’s life. In this case, light offers a look into Kusama’s inner world, one that had struggles but also found splendor.
The Light Spreads Out, and Glittering Things Start Appearing All Around Me is on view through January 31, 2027. Buy tickets in advance on the Yayoi Kusama Museum website.
The Yayoi Kusama Museum has recently opened its first show after her death: The Light Spreads Out, and Glittering Things Start Appearing All Around Me.
1F Gallery Installation View © Yayoi Kusama
Light is the conceptual anchor of The Light Spreads Out.
3F Gallery Installation View © Yayoi Kusama
The show features works created throughout her career, all united by illumination.
5F Rooftop Gallery Installation View © Yayoi Kusama
“A Flower #6” (1953) © Yayoi Kusama Private collection (Deposit: Yayoi Kusama Museum)
“Fish” (1986) © Yayoi Kusama
“Form of Love” (2012) © Yayoi Kusama
“Appearance of God” (2015) © Yayoi Kusama
“Lemon Squash” (1999) © Yayoi Kusama
“Life” 2015 Installation view at Yayoi Kusama Museum, Tokyo, 2022 © Yayoi Kusama *Reference Image
Taken together, the exhibition demonstrates how one subject can exist—and continually reinvent itself—throughout an artist’s life.
“Longing for Infinite Heaven” (2020) © Yayoi Kusama
In this case, light offers a look into Kusama’s inner world, one that had struggles but also found splendor.
“A Spirit” (1956) © Yayoi Kusama
Exterior view of the Yayoi Kusama Museum (Photo: Kawasumi-Kobayashi Kenji Photograph Office)
