Japan's polka dot queen to make her mark on Shanghai

The Japanese pioneering avant-garde artist Yayoi Kusama, 90, is holding her solo exhibition “All About Love Speaks Forever” at Fosun Foundation Shanghai from Wednesday until June 9.

A total of 42 artworks, including paintings, sculptures and large immersive, multi-reflective installations will be presented, highlighted with Kusama’s symbolic motifs such as pumpkins, mirrored rooms and polka dots.

“I want to keep on creating the world of deep awe towards life by embracing the messages of love and peace and the universe that floods from my mind and heart,” she said.

The Pumpkin, a 3-meter-tall sculpture sitting outdoors at the southern plaza of the Bund Finance Center, is one of the best-known works of the contemporary artist.

The Infinity Mirrored Room, another of Kusama’s trademark large installation works, creates a limitless space that blurs the boundary of reality and fantasy with its continual presence of repeated patterns and colors.

A three-dimensional polka dot image is unveiled for the first time, tailor-made for the Shanghai exhibition. The yellow, stem-like patterns and the iconic polka dots of Kusama are intricately twisted to envelope a 6-meter-tall space.

Flowers are another important motif of the artist, which can be seen in many of her works. A set of polka-dotted flower sculptures with big, bright colors is exhibited, surrounded by the paintings from her celebrated “My Eternal Soul” series, which is in its 10th anniversary.

Known as the “polka dot queen,” Kusama marshals her considerable artistic talents to cross freely between the realms of painting, sculpture, installation, performance art and literature, and draws from a wide variety of styles including surrealism, minimalism and pop.

As an artist, she is difficult to categorize. Kusama's aesthetic expressions bear her clear personal mark. The conflict between inner perceptions and the real world that she suffered since childhood formed into a unique artistic language through the process of the materialization of her self-awareness.

Her trademark polka dots, the infinitely expanding nets and organic patterns, and the proliferation of singular elements concretize a boundless, self-dissolving visual experience that completely melts away the boundary between individual and environment.

Exhibition details

Date: March 7 to June 9 (closed on Mondays)

Venue: Fosun Foundation Shanghai

Address: 600 Zhongshan No.2 Road E.

Admission: 150 yuan (US$22) 

Ti Gong

Ti Gong

Ti Gong

Ti Gong

Ti Gong