The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) announced that KUSAMA: Cosmic Nature, its major 2020 exhibition of work by internationally celebrated Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama (b. 1929), will open on May 9, 2020. Tickets for the landmark presentation will go on sale January 29, 2020, at nybg.org/kusama.
NYBG is the sole venue for KUSAMA: Cosmic Nature, which will be on view May 9‒November 1, 2020. The exhibition will include works from throughout her career and multifaceted practice, and debut new works created by the artist such as the monumental Dancing Pumpkin (2020). NYBG is a 250-acre museum of plants that lies just 20 minutes from midtown Manhattan and for visitors to New York, it offers a rare opportunity to view works, including immersive experiences, that encompass Kusama’s entire career. Some of the works on view at NYBG will be seen for the first time in the United States.
Kusama’s profound engagement with nature will be represented in depth, with multiple installations, including her signature mirrored environments and organic forms, colossal polka-dotted sculptures of flora, mesmerizing paintings, and her first-ever participatory greenhouse installation. Sketchbooks from her youth portend Kusama’s lifelong fascination with the natural world that has inspired her aesthetic throughout her prolific career. On view through November 1, 2020, opportunities to experience her work throughout the changing seasons from spring into fall will entice return visits.
Carrie Rebora Barratt, Ph.D., CEO & The William C. Steere Sr. President of The New York Botanical Garden, said, “The Garden is uniquely suited to present this once-in-a-lifetime display of Yayoi Kusama’s work for our visitors. An exceptional selection of work invites visitors into her universe, to consider her practice through her unique vision of the natural world. Our subtitle, Cosmic Nature, references her bold investigations of materiality, media, color, form, and pattern that proliferate into an expansive sense of becoming with the cosmos. We are thrilled to mount this focused survey of the work of one of the most influential artists of our time.”
The exhibition will be installed across the Garden’s 250 acres and in several of its historic buildings. Outdoor works will include large-scale sculptures. The Enid A. Haupt Conservatory will display a spectacular horticultural tribute to Kusama based on one of her vibrant paintings. The LuEsther T. Mertz Library Building will feature immersive experiences as well as examples of her earlier work—botanical sketches, paintings, works on paper, biomorphic collages, assemblages—and recent soft sculpture and canvas works. Many of these will be on view for the first time in the U.S.
Visit nybg.org/kusama to sign up for updates and alerts on the exhibition and related public programming. Tickets go on sale for NYBG Patrons and Members on January 15, 2020.
