Infinity Mirror Rooms artist, Yayoi Kusama, dead at 97. Her polka-dotted life in pictures

Kayla McLean · CBC News

· Posted: Aug 27, 2026 4:17 PM EDT | Last Updated: 30 minutes ago

Artist Yayoi Kusama transfixed the world with her unique perspective — often expressed by blanketing her canvases, sculptures and museum installations in a mesmerizing, endless swarm of her trademark polka dots.

Kusama, whose death at 97 in a hospital in Tokyo was announced on Thursday by her studio, became one of Japan's most revered contemporary artists. Her art travelled the globe to be exhibited in famous galleries, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, and the Museum Ludwig in Germany.

People walk through the art installation Infinity Mirror Room during a preview of the new major exhibition of legendary Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama at the Museum Ludwig in Cologne, Germany, in March. (Martin Meissner/The Associated Press)

Perhaps among her most famous creations, her Infinity Mirror Rooms installations have spawned long queues at museums, including at Toronto's Art Gallery of Ontario where visitors flocked to see the Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors exhibition in 2018. The show's popularity led the gallery to purchase, with crowdfunded support, the permanent installation Infinity Mirrored Room — Let's Survive Forever.

Infinity Mirror Room — Phalli's Field features Kusama's signature polka dots on stuffed phallic shapes surrounded by mirrors. Standing in the room alone, as the piece is meant to be experienced, creates a hallucinatory scene with the viewer's reflection making them an unavoidable part of the experience. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)

The pumpkin motif appears in many of Kusama's works dating to the 1940s and, in 1993, this piece, titled All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkin, appeared in the Venice Biennale. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)

Like her signature orange bob wig, her works have become instantly recognizable, featuring her trademark repetitive psychedelic motifs that include bright, colourful swirls, worms, netting, and most often polka dots, sparkling balls or dots of lights.

Kusama is seen wearing Louis Vuitton, a fashion brand she partnered with in 2012. (Steve Eichner/WWD/Penske Media/Getty Images)

Kusama visited Paris for her multi-site exhibition on in 2001. (Alain Nogues/Sygma/Getty Images)

Kusama frequently said she painted the way she saw the world: covered in spots, much like the hallucinations she said she had from childhood.

A woman views the artwork My Eternal Soul Series during a preview of an exhibition of Kusama's work at the Museum Ludwig in March. (Martin Meissner/The Associated Press)

The sculpture A Bouquet of Love I Saw In the Universe by Kusama is seen at an exhibition at Martin-Gropius-Bau in April 2021 in Berlin. (Adam Berry/Getty Images)

Visitors stand inside Kusama's metal, fibreglass, urethane, paint and stickers installation titled With All My Love for the Tulips, I Pray Forever, 2013 at National Gallery Singapore in June 2017 in Singapore. (Suhaimi Abdullah/Getty Images)

She dealt with years of mental health challenges and recurring visits to psychiatric institutions and was once ostracized by the cultural elite in Japan for her avant-garde style, according to the New York Times. And yet despite those challenges, the artist, whose canon includes installations with phallic fabric sculptures and naked performance pieces, provoked public discourse and became a fixture of the art world.

An art installation of furniture, clothing and other items covered in phallic-like objects is seen in New York in 2012. (Steve Eichner/WWD/Penske Media/Getty Images)

Kusama was born in 1929 in Matsumoto, Japan, and moved to the United States to pursue her art in 1957.

In the late '60s, while Kusama lived in New York City, she held "happening" antiwar performances where she painted circles on people's bodies and, once, even a horse. While the performances gained media attention they also resulted in arrests for obscenity.

At Kusama's 'happening' antiwar performances, like this one on July 14, 1967, she painted circles on people's bodies. (Seymour Wally/NY Daily News/Getty Images)

Kusama's I Spend Each Day Embracing Flowers is seen at David Zwirner's 19th street gallery in New York City in 2023. (Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)

"I want to create a thousand paintings, maybe two thousand paintings, as many as I can draw," she told The Associated Press during an interview in 2012. "I will keep painting until I die."

Paintings and flower sculptures with the title Flowers that Bloom Now appear at the David Zwirner gallery in New York City in 2017. (Stephanie Ott/picture alliance/Getty Images)

As her fame grew, fashion brands began to take notice. Kusama signed on with Louis Vuitton in 2012 under then-creative director Marc Jacobs. She also signed on with other licensed products, with her illustrations appearing on teacups, key chains and T-shirts.

Yayoi Kusama x Louis Vuitton immersive fashion and art pop-up is seen at Harrods in 2023 in London. (Jim Dyson/Getty Images)

A sculpture of Yayoi Kusama sits atop the Louis Vuitton's Champs Elysees store in 2023 in Paris. Kusama licensed her art for many products, including teacups, key chains and T-shirts. (Edward Berthelot/Getty Images)

Kusama, centre, appears with Louis Vuitton leadership at the Louis Vuitton and Yayoi Kusama collaboration unveiling event in New York City in 2012. (Neilson Barnard/Getty Images)

Kusama was a visionary not only on canvas and sculpture but in other mediums; the artist was also a filmmaker and author, having published several novels. She told The Associated Press that her creative process was so mysterious that there were times when she even surprised herself.

"I think, 'Oh I drew that? I was thinking that,'" she said.

Dots Obsession: Infinity Mirrored Room is seen in 2008 at the contemporary art centre Le Spot in Le Havre, France. (Robert Francois/AFP/Getty Images)

A tourist looks at Kusama's Yellow Pumpkin sculpture in Naoshima, Japan. (Education Images/Universal Images Group/Getty Images)

Kusama's Love Forever features hexagonal mirrors surrounding two peepholes through which viewers can see their faces repeated infinitely. (Evan Mitsui/CBC)