Widely inspirational and innovative artist Yayoi Kusama has a body of work that is exceptionally varied, ranging from graphic prints and paintings to polka-dot pumpkin sculptures, hypnotic collages, large-scale installations and fashion design.
Even if you don’t know her name, you’ve likely experienced Kusama’s art — or have seen it on Instagram. Her soft sculptures and dazzling “Infinity Mirrors” are the stuff of selfie-takers’ dreams, but Kusama’s impressive decades-long career certainly holds far more cachet than it does fodder for today’s aspiring social-media influencers.
Born in Matsumoto, Japan, in 1929, Kusama has worked with her signature polka dots since the age of 10, when she began to experience vivid hallucinations and claimed that patterns and dots were moving around her, swallowing up everything in view. She started to incorporate them into her paintings as a child. Kusama saw circular forms and nets on every surface and became especially fascinated with the pebbles that lined the bottom of the creek near her childhood home. Her family was sternly opposed to her art and her mother physically abused Kusama and discouraged her at a very early age. She has suffered psychological turmoil her whole life and is vocal about her mental illness. Today, Kusama is a voluntary resident at a psychiatric facility in Tokyo, and she calls her work “art medicine.”
At the Kyoto School of Arts and Crafts, Kusama trained in Nihonga, a traditional style of Japanese painting that originated during the Meiji period. On advice she solicited from painter Georgia O'Keeffe, a pioneer of modernism in America whom she greatly admired, she subsequently moved to New York City in 1958. There, Kusama flourished, creating prescient sculptures and large-scale monochrome paintings that bridged current styles with minimalism, which hadn’t yet achieved any kind of prominence as an art movement. She pushed boundaries with her “Accumulations” series, which saw her transforming found furniture pieces into sexualized objects, as well as with an avant-garde staging of theatrical orgies on the street — both stemming from her anxieties about sex as well as an endeavor to make a feminist statement about patriarchal authority and sexism.
Kusama was captivated by Surrealists as well as the Abstract Expressionists and greatly influenced the Pop artists who followed, befriending such icons as Donald Judd — who called her work “the best paintings being done” — and Andy Warhol, with whom she exhibited and later accused of stealing her ideas. Kusama moved with ease through artistic circles and made a point to draw attention to her “otherness” as a Japanese woman by wearing kimonos to her openings.
In 2021, Kusama brought her floral and vegetal sculptures to the New York Botanical Garden and her works can be found in the collections of many of the world’s top museums, including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo. She famously collaborated with Louis Vuitton in 2012, and she created a 34-foot-tall balloon for the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade in Manhattan in 2019, becoming the first female artist to design a work for the event. In addition to her visual artwork, Kusama is a writer, publishing poetry, novels and an autobiography.
Find a collection of Yayoi Kusama art on 1stDibs.
Yayoi Kusama Love Forever Ceramic Bowl & Cover
By Yayoi Kusama
Located in New York, NY
Yayoi Kusama Love Forever, 2016 Ceramic (Porcelain) Dish and Cover Stamped Yayoi Kusama on bottom 4 1/2 × 4 1/2 × 1 1/2 inches Unframed Limited edition (exact number created is unkno...
Ceramic, Porcelain, Screen
$1,097
H 2.37 in Dm 15.75 in
The Golden Mean. Contemporary porcelain white-gold sculpture, wall 3D-panel
By Tatiana Nigsch
Located in Oslo, NO
The wall panel Golden Mean is a visual meditation on balance and a point of inner stillness where opposites do not collide but dissolve into one another. The composition is built on ...
Gold Leaf
$914Sale Price|20% Off
H 11.82 in W 11.82 in D 1.58 in
Colorful Floral Bubble Wall Sculpture Polymer Clay Mosaic Wall Art Painting
By Elizabeth Art Candy
Located in FISTERRA, ES
Colorful floral bubble wall sculpture composed of hundreds of hand-modeled polymer clay elements, creating a lightweight mosaic of color, texture and organic growth. Flower Bubbles ...
Clay, Spray Paint, Board
$750Sale Price|20% Off
H 11.03 in W 6.7 in D 6.7 in
Retro Gumball Machine Sculpture Polymer Clay Candy Mosaic Pop Art Object
By Elizabeth Art Candy
Located in FISTERRA, ES
Retro gumball machine sculpture in lightweight polymer clay, combining candy mosaic techniques, nostalgia and Pop Art aesthetics. Candy Machine Yellow belongs to Elizabeth Art Candy’s Fake Candies series, a body of sculptural works inspired by childhood memories, popular culture and the visual language of sweets, toys and collectible objects. This unique sculpture reimagines the classic coin-operated gumball machine as a contemporary Pop Art object constructed from hundreds of individually modeled candy-like elements. Unlike traditional ceramic sculpture, the work is created entirely from polymer clay, a lightweight and highly durable material that allows the artist to achieve remarkable chromatic richness while maintaining a surprisingly low overall weight. Each candy-shaped component is individually hand-modeled, colored and assembled into a dense mosaic structure that transforms the familiar silhouette of a vintage vending machine...
Clay
$1,142
H 11.62 in W 11.62 in D 1.97 in
Pink Floral Bubble Clay Wall Sculpture 3D Mosaic Panel in Hand Molded Ceramic
By Elizabeth Art Candy
Located in FISTERRA, ES
Pink floral bubble clay wall sculpture in hand molded ceramic relief forming a 3D mosaic panel with clustered organic composition. This wall-mounted 3D mosaic panel is composed of i...
Clay, Spray Paint, Board
$1,326Sale Price|20% Off
H 15.75 in W 15.75 in D 1.97 in
Pastel Candy Mosaic Contemporary Clay Relief Wall Sculpture
By Elizabeth Art Candy
Located in FISTERRA, ES
Pastel candy mosaic wall sculpture composed of hand modeled clay forms arranged in a dense contemporary relief with playful sculptural texture. This contemporary clay relief transfo...
Clay, Spray Paint, Board
$3,999
H 31.5 in W 31.5 in D 1.97 in
Large Abstract Bubble Wall Sculpture in Hand Molded Clay 3D Mosaic Panel
By Elizabeth Art Candy
Located in FISTERRA, ES
Large abstract bubble wall sculpture in hand molded clay forming a multicolor 3D mosaic panel with high relief surface. This large-scale wall sculpture is composed of individually h...
Clay, Spray Paint, Board
$1,234Sale Price|20% Off
H 14.57 in W 14.57 in D 3.15 in
Play, Colorful Geometric Polymer Clay Wall Relief Abstract Pop Art Composition
By Elizabeth Art Candy
Located in FISTERRA, ES
A colorful polymer clay wall relief composed of hundreds of hand-modelled geometric forms creates a playful field of color, rhythm and sculptural move...
Clay, Spray Paint, Board
$1,143
H 11.62 in W 11.62 in D 1.97 in
Blue Floral Bubble Clay Wall Relief 3D Mosaic Panel in Hand Molded Texture
By Elizabeth Art Candy
Located in FISTERRA, ES
Blue floral bubble clay wall relief in hand molded ceramic forming a 3D mosaic panel with layered texture and multicolor composition. This wall-mount...
Clay, Spray Paint, Board
$331Sale Price|20% Off
H 5.52 in W 3.35 in D 2.37 in
Drops of Joy Pop Surrealist Clay Juice Carton Sculpture in Acrylic Paint about
By Vera Vizzi
Located in FISTERRA, ES
Small-scale clay sculpture in acrylic explores consumption through a juice-carton object, pairing sugar and pill imagery within a snowy emotional landscape. This hand-modeled clay sc...
Clay, Acrylic
$1,349
H 11.03 in W 12.6 in D 1.58 in
Natural Abstract Clay Mosaic Relief Sculpture With Botanical Forms Wall Art
By Elizabeth Art Candy
Located in FISTERRA, ES
Natural is a contemporary clay mosaic relief sculpture composed of hand-shaped spherical elements, botanical clusters and layered pastel color relationships. Created in 2026, this u...
Clay, Spray Paint, Board
$987Sale Price|20% Off
H 11.82 in W 11.82 in D 1.97 in
Pastel Botanical Wall Sculpture with Hand-Modeled Clay Flowers and Bubbles
By Elizabeth Art Candy
Located in FISTERRA, ES
Pastel floral wall relief composed of hundreds of individually hand-modeled clay elements arranged into a dense botanical field of flowers, bubbles and organic forms. Created by Eliz...
Clay, Spray Paint, Board
$2,286Sale Price|20% Off
H 5.12 in Dm 15.75 in
Red Lips Pop Art Clay Wall Sculpture with Lollipop 3D Mosaic High Relief Panel
By Elizabeth Art Candy
Located in FISTERRA, ES
Red lips pop art clay wall sculpture with lollipop in hand molded ceramic forming a 3D mosaic high relief panel. This figurative wall sculpture is constructed from individually hand...
Clay, Canvas
Sold
H 31 in W 8 in D 0.4 in
With all My Flowering Heart Skateboard Triptych, 3 Limited Edition Skate Decks
By Yayoi Kusama
Located in New York, NY
Yayoi Kusama With All My Flowering Heart (Triptych), 2014 Set of Three (3) Separate Limited Edition numbered skate decks on 7-ply Canadian maple wood 31 × 8 × 2/5 inches (each) Authorized printed...
Wood, Mixed Media, Screen, Permanent Marker
Sold
H 6 in W 10 in
Limited Edition leather clutch (bag) depicting the famed Infinity Mirrored Room
By Yayoi Kusama
Located in New York, NY
Yayoi Kusama Infinity Mirrored Room: The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away: Leather Clutch Purse in Original Box, 2017 Leather outside; polyester inside 6 × 10 × 2 inches This leather clutch with polyester on the inside, is, according to the manufacturer, the most popular product they ever sold. It was created exclusively for the Broad Museum in a limited edition of an undisclosed amount, and has long sold out. Brand new in original box. Makes a wonderful gift! The clutch purse itself measures 6 inches vertical x 10 inches horizontal, and the box measures 6.75 inches x 10.75 inches. Inspired by Yayoi Kusama's iconic artwork, Infinity Mirrored Room: The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away, 2013—originally done in wood, metal, glass mirrors, plastic, acrylic panel, rubber, LED lighting system, acrylic balls, and water - this collectible and very wearable purse features perspectives of the room's expansive interior. YAYOI KUSAMA BIOGRAPHY Yayoi Kusama's work has transcended two of the most important art movements of the second half of the twentieth century: Pop art and Minimalism. Her highly influential career spans paintings, performances, room-size presentations, outdoor sculptural installations, literary works, films, fashion, design, and interventions within existing architectural structures, which allude at once to microscopic and macroscopic universes. Born in 1929 in Matsumoto, Japan, Kusama’s work has been featured widely in both solo and group presentations. She presented her first solo show in her native Japan in 1952. In the mid-1960s, she established herself in New York as an important avant-garde artist by staging groundbreaking and influential happenings, events, and exhibitions. Her work gained renewed widespread recognition in the late 1980s following a number of international solo exhibitions, including shows at the Center for International Contemporary Arts, New York, and the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, both of which took place in 1989. She represented Japan in 1993 at the 45th Venice Biennale, to much critical acclaim. In 1998, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Museum of Modern Art, New York, co-organized Love Forever: Yayoi Kusama, 1958–1968, which toured to the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (1998-1999), and Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo (1999). More recently, in 2011 to 2012, her work was the subject of a large-scale retrospective that traveled to the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Tate Modern, London; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. From 2012 through 2015, three major museum solo presentations of the artist’s work simultaneously traveled to major museums throughout Japan, Asia, and Central and South America. In 2015, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk, Denmark, organized a comprehensive overview of Kusama’s practice that traveled to Henie-Onstad Kunstsenter, Høvikodden, Norway; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; and Helsinki Art Museum. In 2017-2019, a major survey of the artist’s work, Infinity Mirrors, was presented at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; Seattle Art Museum; The Broad, Los Angeles; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto; The Cleveland Museum of Art, Ohio; and the High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Georgia. Yayoi Kusama: Life Is the Heart of the Rainbow, which marked the first large-scale exhibition of Kusama’s work presented in Southeast Asia, opened at the National Gallery of Singapore in 2017 and traveled to the Queensland Art Gallery Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane, Australia and the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nusantara, Jakarta. In 2019, All About Love Speaks Forever, an exhibition "tailor-made" specifically for the Fosun Foundation, Shanghai included more than 40 works by the artist. A comprehensive retrospective of the artist’s work was on view at Gropius Bau, Berlin in 2021, and traveled to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art in 2022. KUSAMA: Cosmic Nature...
Leather, Polyester, Mixed Media
Sold
H 31 in W 5 in D 0.2 in
Infinity Skate Deck (Limited Edition hand numbered with museum provenance)
By Yayoi Kusama
Located in New York, NY
YAYOI KUSAMA The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away (Infinity Mirror) Skate Deck, 2013 Limited edition skateboard. Signed on the deck and numbered 31 × 8 inches Limited Edition of...
Wood, Screen, Permanent Marker
Sold
H 6 in W 10 in
Infinity Mirrored Room: The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away Leather Clutch
By Yayoi Kusama
Located in New York, NY
Yayoi Kusama Infinity Mirrored Room: The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away: Leather Clutch Purse in Original Box, 2017 Leather outside; polyester insid...
Leather, Polyester, Mixed Media
Sold
H 31 in W 8 in D 0.4 in
With all My Flowering Heart (A Complete Set of Three (3) Skate Decks
By Yayoi Kusama
Located in New York, NY
Yayoi Kusama With All My Flowering Heart (Triptych), 2014 Set of Three (3) Separate Limited Edition numbered skate decks on 7-ply Canadian ...
Wood, Screen
Sold
H 31 in W 8 in D 0.4 in
With all My Flowering Heart (A Complete Set of Three (3) Skate Decks
By Yayoi Kusama
Located in New York, NY
Yayoi Kusama With All My Flowering Heart (Triptych), 2014 Set of 3 Separate Limited Edition numbered skate decks on 7-ply Canadian maple wo...
Wood, Screen
Sold
H 6 in W 10 in
Infinity Mirrored Room: The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away Leather Clutch
By Yayoi Kusama
Located in New York, NY
Yayoi Kusama Infinity Mirrored Room: The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away: Leather Clutch Purse in Original Box, 2017 Leather outside; polyester insid...
Leather, Polyester, Mixed Media
Sold
H 31 in W 8 in D 0.4 in
With all My Flowering Heart (A Complete Set of Three (3) Skate Decks
By Yayoi Kusama
Located in New York, NY
Yayoi Kusama With All My Flowering Heart (Triptych), 2014 Set of 3 Separate Limited Edition numbered skate decks on 7-ply Canadian maple wo...
Wood, Screen
Pumpkin Snowglobe
By Yayoi Kusama
Located in Dubai, Dubai
Snowglobe featuring Kusama's pumpkin surrounded by gold glitter made with glass, polyresin and water.
Glass, Resin
Kusama Plush Pumpkin (Kusama red & white pumpkin)
By Yayoi Kusama
Located in NEW YORK, NY
Yayoi Kusama Red & White Pumpkin (plush): An iconic, vibrantly colored pop art piece - this Kusama plush pumpkin features the universal polka dot ...
Nylon
Kusama Plush Pumpkin (Kusama red & white pumpkin)
By Yayoi Kusama
Located in NEW YORK, NY
Yayoi Kusama Red & White Pumpkin (plush): An iconic, vibrantly colored pop art piece - this large Kusama plush pumpkin features the universal polka dot pa...
Nylon
Sold
H 15.52 in W 21.38 in
Spirit of Glasses by YAYOI KUSAMA - Contemporary female artist, pop art
By Yayoi Kusama
Located in London, GB
YAYOI KUSAMA (b. 1929) Spirit of Glasses Collage, pastel and ink on paper 39.4 x 54.3 cm (15 ¹/₂ x 21 ³/₈ inches) Signed and dated lower right, Yayoi Kusama 1975 Signed twice and ...
Oil Pastel, Ink, Magazine Paper