Japan's Queen of Polkadots, Yayoi Kusama

Yayoi Kusama is probably Japan's most well-known contemporary artist today. Her career has been a massively influential beacon for younger Japanese art students hoping to break into the tenacious and often intimidating field of visual creativity. She has had her works exhibited alongside personalities like George Segal and Andy Warhol through the decades, while prominently personifying her public installations, paintings, sculptures and collages.





When she moved to New York in 1957, Kusama experimented with pieces influenced by the different practitioners of abstract expressionism, eventually leading her to create works that helped launch the pop art genre. Her works have been criticized to be intertwined with aspects of autobiographical, sexual and even psychological influences. All these were masterfully shadow-painted in between the compositions of her psychedelic masterpieces, which were also often adapted into the world of fashion.





As a forerunner of feminist art, abstract expressionism and pop art, Kusama's name quickly became a phenomena to women who wanted to find something more than just finely crafted collectibles. The big brands of luxury, like Louis Vuitton became aware of this and asked her to collaborate with them on novelty lines for their products. She had even established Kusama Fashion Company Ltd in the late 1960's and sold modernist fashion items at Bloomingdale's. Kusama's incredibly multi-faceted career has also had numerous large-built public installation sculptures launched in major cities of Japan and America, collaborating with many local and international artists as well. She's an idol of many young female artists who aspire to make large footsteps in the scope of avant-garde aesthetics.

Artworks and Installations by Yayoi Kusama, Photography by Representative Galleries