Welcoming the public from 15 December 2024, Melbourne’s National Gallery of Victoria (NGV) will host a world-premiere exhibition celebrating the extraordinary eight-decade career of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama.
Titled Yayoi Kusama, the exhibition spans the artist’s groundbreaking contributions to contemporary art, featuring over 200 works, many never-before-seen in Australia. It’s set to be the most extensive Kusama retrospective ever presented in Australia and one of the largest globally.
Displayed across the entire ground floor of NGV International, the exhibition will offer a chronological journey through Kusama’s career, from her early life in Japan during the 1930s to her present-day achievements.
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The diverse collection includes paintings, sculptures, videos, fashion, and large-scale installations that showcase the artist’s innovative use of pattern, colour and immersive environments.
Highlights include the Australian debut of her monumental Dancing Pumpkin, a towering 5-metre-high sculpture and The Hope of the Polka Dots Buried in Infinity Will Eternally Cover the Universe (2019), an enormous installation enveloping viewers in Kusama’s signature polka dots.
A major drawcard is the world premiere of Kusama’s latest Infinity Mirrored Room titled My Heart is Filled to the Brim with Sparkling Light (2024).
This new immersive installation invites visitors into a seemingly endless celestial universe, a hallmark of Kusama’s ability to create spaces that evoke infinite reflection and contemplation. Since debuting her first Infinity Rooms in the 1960s, Kusama has redefined immersive art and this new work continues that legacy.
In addition to the gallery exhibition, the NGV’s public spaces will be transformed with Kusama’s signature polka dots, including a playful installation of floating spheres in the Great Hall and the pink-and-white Ascension of Polka Dots on the Trees, which will adorn Melbourne’s St Kilda Road.
Accompanying the main exhibition is Kusama for Kids, an interactive display featuring the artist’s famous Obliteration Room, where visitors can add coloured dots to a white room, becoming part of the artwork itself.
Running until 21 April 2025, Yayoi Kusama promises to be a visual and sensory celebration of one of the most influential artists of our time.
For more information and to book tickets, head here.
