Born in Japan in 1929, Yayoi Kusama is one of the world’s most important and recognised practitioners working today. Kusama is renowned globally for her singular and idiosyncratic use of pattern, colour and symbols to create immersive, thought-provoking and intensely personal works of art that transcend language and borders. The artist has made indelible contributions to key art movements of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, including minimalism, pop art, performance and feminist art, and is celebrated today for her instantly recognisable works of art incorporating pumpkin and polka-dot motifs.

Comprising nearly 200 works, the exhibition Yayoi Kusama is the largest ever exhibition of the artist’s work in Australia and one of the most comprehensive retrospectives of the artist ever presented globally. Featuring painting, sculpture, collage, fashion, video and installation, the exhibition reveals the astonishing breadth of Kusama’s multidisciplinary practice.

Yayoi Kusama will be displayed across the entire ground floor of NGV International. Our public spaces will also be transformed by Kusama’s signature polka-dots, extending the sensory experience of Kusama’s work beyond the exhibition galleries to include a site-specific artwork for the NGV’s iconic Waterwall and an installation of enormous balloons that will float playfully over visitors’ heads in NGV International’s Great Hall, titled Dots Obsession. In Federation Court Dancing Pumpkin, a towering 5-metre-tall bronze sculpture newly acquired by the NGV, will make its Australian debut. Conceived by the artist in 2020, Dancing Pumpkin takes Kusama’s iconic motif into new and surprising conceptual terrain and allows audiences to walk under the towering sculpture.

Explore the range of NGV Educator-led programming below, or book a self-guided school visit. Bookings are required for all school groups.

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