Yayoi Kusama was born 1929, in Matsumoto City and began painting at the age of 10, as a means of escaping a childhood of neglect and expressing her early experiences with hallucinogenic visions. She is best known for her works best known for her works featuring repeating motifs and psychedelic imagery that evoke themes of psychology, feminism, obsession, sex, creation, destruction, and intense self-reflection. Inspired by a letter she received from Georgia O’Keefe, Kusama moved to New York City in 1957 to pursue a career as an artist. Over the next decade she garnered a reputation as a controversial member of the New York avant-garde, first obsessively working on her series of Infinity Nets, paintings and sculptures featuring meticulous, seemingly endless repetitive motifs. 

Over the next few years she also staged elaborate happenings throughout New York City and exhibited her work with Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg and other prominent avant-garde artists throughout the 1960s, before returning to Japan in the early 1970s and living in a mental hospital, where she wrote surreal short stories and poems. She later returned to her previous themes in painting and installation art, creating rooms full of mirrors reflecting her iconic polka dots and Infinity Nets in further meditations on repetition and obsession. After representing Japan at the Venice Biennale in 1993, Kusama’s work received newly heightened recognition from the international art world. She has been honored with the Ordre des Arts et Lettres from the French Ministry of Culture, as well as the Praemium Imperiale prize from the Japanese Art Association. In recent years she has created large public sculptures on commission, and has made several films and documentaries. In 2018, Kusama became the best-selling living female artist, with works breaking record prices at auction. She currently lives and works in Tokyo.

Selected exhibitions

2020
"One with Eternity: Yayoi Kusama in the Hirshhorn Collection," Washington, DC

2019
Yayoi Kusama: Everyday I Pray For Love, David Zwirner Gallery, New York, NY
Yayoi Kusama, Museum Voorlinden, Wassenaar, The Netherlands

2018
Yayoi Kusama: Life is the Heart of a Rainbow, Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nusantara (Museum MACAN), Jakarta, Indonesia
Yayoi Kusama: All About My Love, Matsumoto City Museum of Art, Matsumoto, Nagano, Japan
Yayoi Kusama: Life is the Heart of a Rainbow and Obliteration Room, GOMA, Brisbane, Australia

2017
Yayoi Kusama: Life is the Heart of a Rainbow, National Gallery Singapore
Infinity Mirrors, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; exhibition travels to The Broad, Los Angeles, California; Seattle Art Museum, Washington; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada

2016
"Dot Obsessions – Tasmania", MONA: Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart, Australia
Kusama: At the End of the Universe, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Houston, Texas
Yayoi Kusama – I uendeligheten, Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Oslo, Norway

2015
Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Theory, The Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia
In Infinity, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark

2014
Yayoi Kusama: Infinite Obsession, Centro Cultural Banco de Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (solo)

2013
Dynamo: Un Siecle de lumiere et de mouvement dans l'art 1913-2013/A Century of light and movement in art 1913-2013, Grand Palais, Paris, France
Yayoi Kusama: Eternity of Eternal Eternity, Shizuoka Prefectural museum of Art, Shizuoka, Japan (solo)
Cinematic Visions: Painting at the Edge of Reality, Victoria Miro, London, England
Yayoi Kusama: Infinite Obsession, Malba - Fundacion Constantini, Buenos Aires, Argentina (solo)
Yayoi Kusama: A Dream I Dreamed, Daegu Art Museum, Daegu, Korea (solo)
Yayoi Kusama, David Zwirner, New York, USA

2012
Drawings from the mid-50s - D'Amelio Terras, New York, USA
Yayoi Kusama, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA
Yayoi Kusama, Tate Modern, London, England
Yayoi Kusama, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina, Sofia, Bulgaria; Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; Tate Modern, London, England; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA

2011
Yayol Kusama: Heaven and Earth, Robert Miller Gallery, New York, USA
Yayoi Kusama, Gagosian Gallery, Rome, Italy
Yayoi Kusama, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain
Yayoi Kusama, Victoria Miro Gallery, London, England
Yayoi Kusama's Body festival in 60's - Watari-Um, Watari Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan

2010
Yayoi Kusama, The Place for My Soul, Matsumoto City Museum of Art, Nagano, Japan (solo)
Minimalism & Conceptualism, Jason Rulnick, New York, NY

2009
Flowers That Bloom at Midnight, Gagosian Gallery, Beverly Hills, CA (solo)
Yayoi Kusama, , Gagosian Gallery, New York, NY (solo)
Yayoi Kusama - I Want to Live Forever - PAC - Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea, Milan, Italy (solo)
Yayoi Kusama - Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery, Sydney, Australia (solo)
Yayoi Kusama - Mirrored Years - Museum of Contemporary Art Sydney - MCA, Sydney, Australia (solo)

2008
Yayoi Kusama, Marlborough London, London, UK (solo)
Sotto Voce, Yvon Lambert, New York, NY
Yayoi Kusama, Mirrored Years, Museums Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands (solo)
Yayoi Kusama, Victoria Miro Gallery, London, UK (solo)
The Masked Portrait: Aspects of Japanese Contemporary Art 1949-Present, Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York, NY
Yayoi Kusama, Matsumoto City Museum of Art, Nagano, Japan (Solo)

2007
Yayoi Kusama, Victoria Miro Gallery, London, UK (solo)
Yayoi Kusama, Roslyn Oxley 9 Gallery, Sydney, Australia (solo)
Yayoi Kusama, Dots Obsession - Dots Transformed into Love, Haus der Kunst, Munich, Germany; WIELS, Brussel, Belgium (solo)
Infinity Nets 2006, MOMA Contemporary, Fukuoka, Japan (solo)
Beautiful New World: Contemporary Visual Culture from Japan, Long March Project, "798" Dashanzi Art District, Beijing, China
Rose Art: Works from the Permanent Collection, The Rose Art Museum, Massachusetts
NAOSHIMA STANDARD 2, Benesse Art Site Naoshima, Kagawa, Japan

2006
Yayoi Kusama, Sakima Art Museum, Okinawa, Japan (solo)
Yayoi Kusama, Iwami Art Museum, Shimane, Japan (solo)
Yayoi Kusama, YAYOI in FOREVER, Forever Museum of Contemporary Art gallery, Akita, Japan (solo)
Yayoi Kusama, Arndt&Partner, Berlin, Germany (solo)
Yayoi Kusama Metamorphosis, Galleria Civica, Modena, Italy (solo)
Yayoi Kusama, Robert Miller Gallery, New York, NY (solo)
Crimson Eye, Piece Unique, Paris, France (solo)