Yayoi Kusama is creating her first ever participatory art installation

Celebrated Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama is set to bring exciting new work to her latest on-the-horizon exhibition, alongside some of her classic signature pieces. The sprawling exhibition of Kusama’s work will open in the New York Botanical Garden next year, featuring the artist’s first-ever audience participatory installation, which will change over the months of the show.

Billed as a “a multisensory presentation of the artist’s connection with nature”, the exhibition will make use of both the Bronx venue’s outside gardens and indoor space to showcase art that Kusama has created for the show, including the participatory greenhouse installation and a site-specific pumpkin, as well as her famous Infinity Rooms, pumpkin sculptures, a huge polka-dot flora sculpture, a horticultural showcase, botanical sketches and drawings that highlight her earliest fascinations with nature. Public programming, expected to feature talks, workshops, and events related to the artist’s work, will be announced in the coming months.

“We are thrilled to present this unprecedented installation of Yayoi Kusama’s work, including new sculptures made especially for our site. In a lifetime of finding inspiration in nature and pushing against boundaries and biases, she developed a unique lexicon for artistic expression,” Carrie Rebora Barratt, president of NYBG, said in a statement. “While these works appear as mostly abstract forms to viewers, they are manifestations of how she sees the universe, specifically the natural world. We are grateful to her for sharing her vision and helping us realise this once-in-a-lifetime display at the Garden for our visitors.”

In the last five years, over five million museum visitors have queued to view Kusama’s art.

Her anticipated show at New York’s David Zwirner gallery is also set to open in November 2019, unveiling a completely new Infinity Mirror Room. New Yorkers have more than one chance to get that coveted Infinity Instagram pic over the next year – but be sure to be sharpish, as Broad in LA saw the artist implement a 30-second selfie rule, to allow for as many people as possible to view her work.

European fans can also rejoice as Kusama will display a new artwork in Paris’ iconic Place Vendôme, as part of art fair FIAC, which runs later this year from October 17 to 20.

Should you not be a Bronx resident on a mission, or a Parisian art fan, you can partake in our ultimate guide to Yayoi Kusama on Dazed, or dive into last year’s celebrated documentary, Yayoi: Infinity.

The New York Botanical Garden Yayoi Kusama exhibition will be open May 2 – November 1, 2020