Getting to know Yayoi Kusama

She was born in Matsumoto, Japan 1929, into a wealthy family who owned a plant and seed farm.

1957, in her 20’s, Kusama relocated to the United State-Seattle then New York City, to become an artist 

She was friends with American artist Georgia O’Keeffe.

Kusama has stated that “polka dots are a way to infinity.” She calls her fields of polka dots “infinity nets.”

Yayoi’s early years in the United States were financially difficult but creatively productive. 

She helped pioneer Pop, performance, happenings, and installation art.

She returned to live in Japan in 1973. 

Yayoi uses fashion and culture as an artistic statement. She has designed everything from handbags to lip gloss and Coke cans. 

Today, Yayoi Kusama currently holds the record for the most expensive artwork sold at auction by a living female artist at $7.1 million in 2014 for White Net No. 28 (1960). 

Yayoi Kusama is considered by many to be the most successful living artist.

Before the first dot. Installation views of Yayoi Kusama’s The obliteration room 2002 to present, GOMA 2017-18 / Furniture, white paint, dot stickers / Collaboration between Yayoi Kusama and Queensland Art Gallery, commissioned by the Queensland Art Gallery / Gift of the artist through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation 2012 / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery / © Yayoi Kusama / Courtesy: Yayoi Kusama Studio, Inc. / Photographs: Natasha Harth © QAGOMA

https://www.qagoma.qld.gov.au/whats-on/exhibitions/past-exhibitions/yayoi-kusama

"Macy's Day Thanksgiving Parade 2019: 

Beginning in 2005, this special parade program has been offering contemporary artists an opportunity to transform their work into a prodigious balloon that hovers over New York and is seen by people from all walks of life.

Over the years, many artists -- including Jeff Koons, Keith Haring and Tim Burton -- have been invited to collaborate with Macy's, but a woman's name had missing among the group.

Kusama's contribution is titled "Love Flies Up to the Sky," and it's a striking tentacled round balloon, covered in her signature polka dots. It borrows designs from a previous body of work, "My Eternal Soul" (2009), and was developed in collaboration with the Macy's Parade Studio inside its 72,000-square-foot warehouse."

https://www.cnn.com/style/article/yayoi-kusama-thanksgiving-parade-macys/index.html