Yayoi Kusama’s ‘Infinity Mirror’ Exhibition Debuts On February 23, 2017
Art fans should be on the alert, because 87-year-old Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama has an astonishing new art exhibition, Infinity Mirror, that is set to run from February 2017 until October 2018.
Yayoi Kusama’s exhibition will open at the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden on February 23, 2017 and run there until June. From there it will head to the Seattle Art Museum from June until September 2017, The Broad in Los Angeles from October to January 2018, the Art Gallery of Ontario from March to May 2018, and will end at the Cleveland Museum of Art after its run from July to October 2018.
For a taste of Kusama’s upcoming exhibition, right now you can see Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirrored Room – The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away at The Broad in Los Angeles, where it has been on display since December 2015. After venturing forward into the room, you will see thousands of LED lights, shimmering water, and an atmosphere that can only be described as dreamy and tranquil, almost as if you were floating gently through space.
Infinity Mirror will follow up on this theme with a survey of Yayoi’s work that spans seven decades and in which you will be able to step inside six completely different infinity rooms of hers.
Joanne Heyler, director of The Broad, is very excited about bringing Yayoi Kusama’s new exhibition to the museum.
“Our Infinity Mirrored Room has become a cultural phenomenon and many of our visitors are extremely passionate about Kusama’s work. The timing is right for an exhibition that contextualizes the infinity rooms and brings Kusama’s contributions to 20th and 21st century art into deeper focus. We are thrilled to present this unprecedented special exhibition at The Broad next year that engages seven decades of work by a phenomenal artist.”
For those who are curious, some of the art that will be featured in Yayoi’s Infinity Mirror exhibition will include Dots Obsession — Love Transformed Into Dots, with its bright red and dotted balloons which hang from the ceiling and are perched upon the floor, and Infinity Mirror Room — Phalli’s Field, which was created in the 1960s and contains white phallic objects with numerous bright red polka dots affixed to them.
Two of the other installations will include Aftermath of Obliteration of Eternity and All the Eternal Love I Have For the Pumpkins. For art lovers who enjoy audience participation, Kusama has a surprise for you with The Obliteration Room. In this room, you will see what appears to be a safe and serene haven filled with gentle white furniture. It is up to exhibition viewers to take the brightly-colored stickers there and affix them to the furniture, walls, or floor. Eventually, the room will be filled with a kaleidoscope of colored stickers.
For those interested in knowing a little bit more about Yayoi Kusama, art has been her life for a very long time. She has lived in Tokyo, Seattle, France, and New York and has worked with other artists like Allan Kaprow and Andy Warhol. She has filled museums the world over with the most beautiful spectacles imaginable and has opened up the eyes of many to the subtle effects of polka dots.
“The polka dot has the form of the sun, which is a symbol of the energy of the whole world and our living life, and also the form of the moon, which is calm. Round, soft, colorful, senseless and unknowing. Polka dots become movement. Polka dots are a way to infinity.”
Kusama has just ended her most recent exhibition with Dots Obsession – Alive, Seeking for Eternal Hope, which was at Philip Johnson’s Glass House and featured 1,200 red vinyl circles set upon the glass windows.
Be sure to catch Yayoi Kusama’s newest exhibition in 2017, and prepared to be amazed.
If you have seen Kusama’s exhibitions, what are some of your favorites and why?
[Photo by Richard Vogel/Associated Press]
