By Bryce Marley-Jarrett

Yayoi Kusama is one of the most well-known Japanese artists. Her major works and style are instantaneously recognisable; especially her polka dot works and love of pumpkins. Her works are so popular that galleries are currently vying to host major exhibitions dedicated to her across the world. However, you may be wondering: where do you find some of her finest works in Japan? Today we explore Yayoi Kusama’s installations, exhibitions, and the new museum dedicated entirely to her art, in Japan.

Yayoi Kusama was born in Matsumoto, Japan on March 22, 1929. Kusama trained at the Kyoto School of Arts and Crafts in a traditional painting style known as Nihonga. However she found the style frustrating and was more drawn to the European and American Abstract Impressionism. After stints of living in Tokyo and Paris, in 1958 she moved to New York, to become apart of the avant-garde scene, focussing on the pop-art movement through the 1960s. She became known after a series of ‘happenings’ she organised in New York, where naked participants were painted with brightly coloured polka dots: a style that she is now infamously known for in the art world.