Three new giant dotted pumpkins by Yayoi Kusama are to be installed in Victoria Miro’s canalside garden to mark the 80th birthday of Japan’s most revered contemporary artist.
Yayoi Kusama – whose legendary career spans six decades – celebrates her 80th birthday this year. To mark the occasion Victoria Miro is delighted to present, for the first time in London, three new pumpkin works. Situated in the gallery’s canalside garden the sculptures will be presented alongside her permanently installed iconic piece Narcissus Garden (1966-).
Kusama’s acclaimed presentation in the Japanese pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 1993 – which consisted of a mirrored room filled with tiny pumpkin sculptures in which she sat in colour coordinated magician’s attire – marked the beginning of the artist’s preoccupation with the pumpkin motif. Following the Biennale she went on to produce a huge, yellow pumpkin sculpture covered with an optical pattern of black dots. This pumpkin came to represent for her a kind of alter ego or self-portrait and remains one of her signature series of works.
Please note there is no private view for Yayoi Kusama: Outdoor Sculptures. The gallery will be open as usual Tuesday – Saturday 10am – 6pm.
