Yayoi Kusama

Yayoi Kusama was born on March 22, 1929 in Matsumoto, Japan. She's a contemporary artist, actress & writer. She works in a variety of media such as painting, sculpture, film & installation, focusing on producing a body of work unified in its use of repetitive, densely patterned motifs. She moved to New York in 1958, quickly establishing herself as an important member of the avant-garde alongside Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg & Eva Hesse. She has explained her use of repetition & polka dots as a means to explore infinity as well as obsessively negate the self, such as in her immersive installations Infinity Mirror Room & Fireflies on the Water. Although she returned to Japan in the 1970s to live in a mental hospital & briefly fell into obscurity, her work received newly heightened recognition & popularity after she represented Japan in the 1993 Venice Biennale. She has been the subject of regular museum & gallery exhibitions ever since. In 2008, she broke records as the highest-paid living female artist. She lives & works in Tokyo.