Yayoi Kusama, born in 1929 in the Japanese prefecture of Nagano, is considered one of the most influential living artists in the world. Her international breakthrough came in the 1960s in New York, where she joined the Pop Art movement and became an icon of the avant-garde through her provocative happenings, such as body painting festivals and anti-war demonstrations. She developed her trademark, the obsessive repetition of dots („polka dots“) and nets, at the age of ten as a reaction to visual hallucinations. This repetitive way of working still serves her today as a kind of „self-cancellation“ and cathartic therapy.

Kusama's work is characterised by an extraordinary diversity: it encompasses painting, sculpture, literature, film and performance. In the late 1950s, she began her famous series of „Infinity Net Paintings“ - process-orientated paintings that captivate with their fine permutations of organic patterns. These obsessive structures formed the basis for her now world-famous „Infinity Mirror Rooms“, in which she uses mirrors and light to create expansive, infinite universes. In addition to the visual arts, she also enjoyed success as a filmmaker and fashion designer; in 1969 she even opened her own boutique in the USA.

After her return to Japan in 1973, Kusama expanded her work to include large-scale sculptures in public spaces, which today adorn cities such as Beverly Hills and Lille. Her works, which always explore the tension between mechanical series and natural creation, are represented in the world's most important institutions, including the MoMA in New York, the Tate Modern in London and the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Kusama remains a tireless creator who mesmerises the public with the hypnotic power of her patterns.