Weekend, May 20-21, 2023 – WONDERFUL BRIGHT AND CHEERFUL ART
FROM THE ARCHIVES
WEEKEND MAY 20-21, 2023
ISSUE 995
Here’s A First Look At
Yayoi Kusama’s All New Infinity
Mirrored Room In NYC
*SECRET NYC
Japanese contemporary artist, Yayoi Kusama, will return to Chelsea’s David Zwirner art gallery, featuring an all new twist on her iconic infinity mirror rooms
JUSTINE GOLATA • MAY 10, 2023
Secret NYC / Maryea Rogers
If at first the name doesn’t ring a bell, remember that insanely life-like women in the window of Louis Vuitton’s flagship on Fifth Avenue? Or the one who decorates the side of the store’s 12-story facade?
Yes, Yayoi Kusama has been taking over NYC (and the world) for years. Her signature dotted pattern and her Instagrammable infinity mirror rooms have made her work quite recognizable
The David Zwirner website shares that the exhibit will feature an all new infinity mirrored room. It’s been four years since the last time this iconic work was on display in New York City.
According to the Smithsonian Institution, Kusama created her first infinity room in 1965 called Phalli’s Field. The “kaleidoscopic environments” challenge onlookers’ perception and creates an illusory reality.
*Entry in the infinity mirrored room will be timed due to the high volume of visitors expected to attend.
SCULPTURES
Can’t afford Yayoi Kusama’s collaboration with Louis Vuitton but still love the design? Her upcoming exhibit will highlight her renowned dot pattern on pumpkins and flowers.
The Yayoi Kusama exhibit will be entirely free to the public, so no tickets or reservations are required. However, her work is known to attract a line—some as long as two hours!—so be prepared to wait. The gallery recommends coming early on weekday mornings.
And of course, you’ll want to take all the selfies and photos for the feed possible, but just note that flash is not allowed at the exhibit.
Yayoi Kusama merchandise will be available for purchase at the David Zwirner bookstore, located at 535 West 20th Street, during the duration of the exhibit.
Where: David Zwirner, 525 W 19th St, New York
Yayoi Kusama with recent works in Tokyo, 2016. Photo by Tomoaki Makino. Courtesy of the artist © Yayoi Kusama
Our earth is only one polka dot among a million stars in the cosmos. Polka dots are a way to infinity.
–Yayoi Kusama
Yayoi Kusama
Guided by her unique vision and unparalleled creativity, critically acclaimed artist Yayoi Kusama has been breaking new ground for more than six decades. In 1993, she became the first woman to represent Japan at the Venice Biennale, and last year, Time magazine named her one of the world’s most influential people.
Born in 1929, Kusama grew up near her family’s plant nursery in Matsumoto, Japan. At nineteen, following World War II, she went to Kyoto to study the traditional Japanese style of painting known as Nihonga. During this time, she began experimenting with abstraction, but it was not until she arrived in the United States, in 1957, that her career took off. Living in New York from 1958 to 1973, Kusama moved in avant-garde circles with such figures as Andy Warhol and Allan Kaprow while honing her signature dot and net motifs, developing soft sculpture, creating installation-based works, and staging Happenings (performance-based events). She first used mirrors as a multireflective device in Infinity Mirror Room—Phalli’s Field, 1965, transforming the intense repetition that marked some of her earlier works into an immersive experience. Kusama returned to Japan in 1973 but has continued to develop her mirrored installations, and over the years, she has attained cult status, not only as an artist, but as a novelist.
FRIDAY PHOTO OF THE DAY
BEACON THAT WAS ON TOP OF THE ORIGINAL TRAM TOWERS- 1976-2010
WEEKEND PHOTO OF THE DAY
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JUDITH BERDY
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