Yayoi Kusama was a contemporary Japanese artist whose work spanned across painting, sculpture, film, and installation. Her practice unified recurring motifs such as polka dots, pumpkins, and mirrors, which reflect her philosophy of the universe and what she called “stereotypical repetition.” Born on March 22, 1929, in Matsumoto City, Japan, she studied painting in Kyoto before moving to New York in 1958, where she emerged as a distinctive figure among artists including Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg. Her work drew from hallucinations she experienced in childhood and includes immersive installations such as Infinity Mirror Room (1965).
In the 1970s, mental health challenges led Kusama to return to Japan, where she lived in relative obscurity until representing her country at the 1993 Venice Biennale. Beginning in 1977, she voluntarily lived at the Seiwa Mental Hospital in Tokyo. Her work is held in major museum collections worldwide, including The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Mattress Factory in Pittsburgh, and the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo.