World-premiere Yayoi Kusama exhibition coming to NGV, Melbourne in summer

A dancing pumpkin, a mass of 6m-high tentacles and an infinity mirror room making its global debut will dazzle at Melbourne’s Yayoi Kusama exhibition. SEE THE VIDEO

NGV International will showcase the work of pumpkin and polka dot provocateur Yayoi Kusama in a world-premiere exhibition in December.

The exhibition will show more than 180 pieces by the Japanese-born, US-based artist, and is part of the NGV’s annual summer blockbuster series.

Kusama, 95, is known globally for her immersive infinity mirrors rooms and famous artworks featuring dots, polka dots and pumpkins.

Kusama will debut a brand new infinity room created especially for the NGV.

NGV will also present a Yayoi Kusama kids’ exhibition. Picture: N Harth

“Yayoi Kusama is one of the most important artists of the last century,” Dr Miranda Wallace, a senior curator at the NGV, said.

“She is very much connected to the zeigeist and has helped shape a lot of people’s understanding about contemporary art.”

Visitors to Yayoi Kusama at the NGV will become “visually entangled” within 6m-high tentacular forms.

Yayoi Kusama's Dancing Pumpkin, pictured at New York Botanical Garden, is coming to Melbourne. Picture: Robert Benson

The NGV exhibition will include:

A new kaleidoscopic infinity mirror room which will make its world premiere in Melbourne;

Dancing Pumpkin, a towering 5m-tall bronze sculpture under which visitors will be able to walk;

An installation that “visually entangles” visitors within 6m-high tentacular forms covered in yellow and black polka dots;

A work comprising of 1400 stainless silver balls, each 30cm in diameter, and presented en masse at the NGV entrance; and,

Paintings, sculptures, fashion designs from Kusama’s eight decades of practice.

Installation view of Yayoi Kusama's infinity mirror room, Phall's Field 1965 at the Castellane Gallery, New York.

Kusama was also a prolific painter. Pictured is her work Pumpkin (1981).

Kusama moved from her native Japan to New York in the 1950s, where she influenced artists including Andy Warhol, and was a major figure in pop art and minimalist movements. She was also a pioneer in performance art.

Dr Wallace said Kusama gained mainstream attention recently after collaborating with fashion label Louis Vuitton.

“Art has become ‘big’; it’s about scale, it’s about immersivity,” Dr Wallace said.

“She’s an entrepreneur in the same way people identify someone Andy Warhol, who broke down the barriers of art and commerce.”

NGV director Tony Ellwood said the Kusama show was the largest solo artist exhibition staged by the gallery, and thanked the state government for its support to secure it.

He added he was “indebted” to Kusama for collaborating with the gallery for the exhibition.

“Without the artist’s personal dedication to this exhibition, and excitement to share her world view with Australian audiences, none of this would be possible,” he said.

One of Kusama’s famous pumpkins is already on show at Pt. Leo Estate outside Melbourne. Picture: Jason Edwards

Yayoi Kusama has been dubbed one of this century’s “most important artists”. Picture: Yusuke Miyazaki

NGV senior curator Wayne Crothers said the exhibition would allow visitors to “enter Kusama’s fantastical world”.

Minister for Tourism, Sport and Major Events Steve Dimopoulos tipped “big crowds” to flock to see Kusama’s “vibrant and diverse works that will feel right at home in Melbourne”, while Minister for Creative Industries Colin Brooks labelled the exhibition “another coup for our creative state”.

Yayoi Kusama will be on display from December 15, 2024, to April 21, 2025.

ngv.vic.gov.au