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You’ve probably seen her repeating, brightly coloured polka dot patterns in high-end fashion and contemporary art biennales. She is all about pumpkins. A concurrent rival to Andy Warhol’s pop art, she has filled galleries and outdoor venues with vivid, hallucinating, mirrored pumpkin infinity rooms, pumpkin statues, and pumpkin paintings. And if you don’t know her name by now, she is one of today’s most influential modern artists.

Yayoi Kusama Photographer: Susanne Nilsson

​​Yayoi Kusama (草間 彌生 Kusama Yayoi) was born on March 22nd 1929, and she created her first pumpkin art piece as a teenager. Fast forward to today, her style has matured, but the pumpkins have become a distinct part of her obsessional form of art. While being famous for sculptures and installations, she is also active in painting, performance, film, fashion, poetry, fiction, and other creative arts.

And she has a museum hidden away in Tokyo’s Shinjuku neighbourhood. ​​There are two exhibitions every year, and the next one, titled HERE, ANOTHER NIGHT COMES FROM TRILLIONS OF LIGHT YEARS AWAY: Eternal Infinity, opens from April 4th until August 31st. The 1,000 yen tickets are few and far between as they cannot be purchased at the door — but only on the museum’s website. Each ticket comes with a 90-minute admission time, and you can only enter during that designated time.

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Open Thursdays to Sundays and national holidays.​​
Address: 107 Bentencho, Shinjuku, Tokyo 162-0851
Phone: 03-5273-1778