Yayoi Kusama represented Japan at the 45th Venice Biennale in 1993, and currently lives and works in Tokyo, where the Yayoi Kusama Museum opened in October 2017. Over the past decade there have been museum exhibitions of Kusama’s work touring the world in North America, Japan, Korea, Singapore, China, Australia, Russia, Brazil, Argentina, Mexico, Chile, Spain, England, France, Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland. In 2016 Kusama was selected as one of TIME Magazine’s World’s 100 Most Influential People. She was also named the world’s most popular artist by various news outlets, based on figures reported by The Art Newspaper for global museum attendance. In 2016, Kusama received the Order of Culture, one of the highest honours bestowed by the Imperial Family. Kusama is the first woman to be honoured with the prestigious medal for drawings and sculptures.

Current major exhibitions include Yayoi Kusama: Infinite Love at the San Francisco Museum of Art (on view until 7 September 2024) and Yayoi Kusama: 1945 – Today, Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Serralves, Porto, Portugal (until 29 September 2024).

Recent institutional exhibitions include: Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Rooms at Tate Modern, London, UK (18 May 2021–28 April 2024); Yayoi Kusama: The Dutch Years 1965–1970 at Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, Netherlands (23 September 2023–25 February 2024); Yayoi Kusama: LOVE IS CALLING, The Pérez Art Museum Miami, USA (9 March 2023–11 February 2024); Yayoi Kusama’s Self Obliteration / Psychedelic World, Yayoi Kusama Museum, Tokyo, Japan (29 April–18 September 2023); Yayoi Kusama: You, Me and the Balloons, The Warehouse, Factory International, Manchester, UK (30 June–28 August 2023); Yayoi Kusama: 1945 to Now at M+, Hong Kong (12 November 2022–14 May 2023), travelling to the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao, Spain (27 June–8 October 2023); One with Eternity: Yayoi Kusama in the Hirshhorn Collection at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC, US (1 April 2022–Spring 2023); Yayoi Kusama: My Soul Blooms Forever, Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, Qatar (20 November 2022–1 March 2023); Yayoi Kusama: DANCING LIGHTS THAT FLEW UP INTO THE UNIVERSE at PHI Foundation, Montréal (6 July 2022–15 January 2023). The artist’s first major exhibition in Germany, Yayoi Kusama: A Retrospective – A Bouquet of Love I Saw in the Universe was on view at Gropius Bau in Berlin (23 April–15 August 2021), travelling to the Tel Aviv Museum of Art (15 November 2021–14 May 2022). Further recent institutional exhibitions include KUSAMA: COSMIC NATURE, inspired by Kusama’s lifelong engagement with nature and fascination with the natural world, held at the New York Botanical Garden, New York (10 April–31 October 2021).

In 2017, a significant North American tour of Kusama’s work began at the Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden (February–May 2017), travelling to Seattle Art Museum (June–September 2017), The Broad, Los Angeles (October 2017– January 2018), Art Gallery of Ontario (March– May 2018), Cleveland Museum of Art (July–October 2018) and The High Museum of Art, Atlanta (November 2018–February 2019).

Further major international touring exhibitions include Infinity Mirrors, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada, travelling to Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, USA; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA, USA (2018); Yayoi Kusama: Life is the Heart of a Rainbow, National Gallery of Singapore (2017); travelling to Queensland Art Gallery - Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane (2017–2018), and Yayoi Kusama: In Infinity, which travelled from the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, (2015– 2016) to Henie Onstad Kunstcenter, Oslo (2016); Moderna Museet, Stockholm (2016) and Helsinki Art Museum (2016–2017). Kusama Yayoi: A Dream I Dreamed was first presented at the Daegu Art Museum, Korea (2013) and travelled subsequently to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Shanghai (2013–2014); Seoul Arts Centre, Korea (2014); Kaohsiung Museum of Fine Arts, Taiwan (2015); and the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung (2015). The widely acclaimed Yayoi Kusama: Infinite Obsession toured from 2013 to 2015 at the South American institutional venues Malba – Fundación Costantini, Buenos Aires (2013); Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil, Brasília (2013– 2014); Instituto Tomie Ohtake, São Paulo (2014); Museo Tamayo, Mexico City (2014–2015) and Fundación CorpArtes, Santiago (2015). Previously, from 2012 to 2014 the large-scale exhibition Yayoi Kusama: Eternity of Eternal Eternity was staged in museums in Japan including The National Museum of Art, Osaka; Museum of Modern Art, Saitama; Matsumoto City Museum of Art, Matsumoto; Niigata City Art Museum, Niigata; Shizuoka Prefectural Museum of Art, Shizuoka; Oita Art Museum, Oita; The Museum of Art, Kochi; Contemporary Art Museum, Kumamoto; Akita Senshu Museum of Art & A Akita Museum of Modern Art and Matsuzakaya Museum, Nagoya. A touring retrospective of the artist’s work was presented from 2011 to 2012 at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Tate Modern, London; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York.

Previous significant surveys include Mirrored Years, which travelled from the Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, and City Gallery Wellington, New Zealand from 2008–2009. Yayoi Kusama: Eternity Modernity was presented at The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (2004), and The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto, Japan (2005).

Yayoi Kusama’s tallest bronze pumpkin sculpture to date is currently on view in London, presented by Serpentine and The Royal Parks, until 3 November 2024. Standing at 6 metres tall and 5.5 metres in diameter, Pumpkin, 2024, is located by the Round Pond in Kensington Gardens dialogue with the surrounding environment.