From her earliest years, Yayoi Kusama found her greatest joy in drawing. Over the course of her long career, her artistic practice has evolved in a variety of ways. This exhibition identifies two distinct facets of Kusama’s identity as revealed through her work— “the fighting woman” and “the innocent girl”—and traces how these personas have emerged and transformed over time.

In 1957, Kusama moved to the United States, embarking upon an uncompromising practice within an art world then dominated by white male artists, where she positioned herself with fierce resolve as a minority—an Asian woman. During her New York years—a period in which she must have been acutely aware of her own identity—Kusama produced a substantial body of ambitious works that confronted both herself and the society around her as a woman. Following her return to Japan in 1973, she re-engaged with painting—a practice she had set aside in the late 1960s—with renewed intensity. In her recent works, a pronounced girl-like sense of innocence is evident, expressed through vivid colors, playful figural depictions, and other similar elements.

The exhibition brings together early drawings; Aggregation sculptures created as acts of overcoming a fear of sex rooted in past trauma; and archival records of her provocative nude performances and fashion projects, which openly challenged prevailing social norms and sexual mores. From her more recent works, it presents a series of paintings produced with notable intensity, as though rendering the depths of her inner world; three-dimensional works depicting girl and flower that appear to give tangible form to her imaginative realm; together with her world-premiere creation, a small-scale mirrored room. We invite visitors to experience Kusama’s multifaceted creative universe, where a fearless spirit that challenges the times coexists with the ingenuousness of a young girl.

L: Kusama wearing a Kusama dress at her boutique, New York c.1969
R: Sex Obsession 2003
© YAYOI KUSAMA

L: EVERYTHING ABOUT MY CHILDHOOD 2016
R: Yayoi-chan 2013
Installation view at Roppongi Hills, Tokyo 2013
© YAYOI KUSAMA

Phantom Polka Dots of Fate, Ordained by Heaven, Were the Greatest Gift Ever for Me 2021
© YAYOI KUSAMA