LOVE IS CALLING: YAYOI KUSAMA AT PAMM

The exhibition is the artist’s largest environment to date –embodying the culmination of Kusama’s artistic feats, the show incorporates her signature polka dots and bold colors, the spoken word, and limitless reflections that double as optical illusions.

Viewers will enter a darkened, mirrored room illuminated by inflatable, tentacle-like forms that extend from the floor and ceiling, gradually changing colors. As visitors walk through the installation, a sound recording of Kusama reciting a love poem in Japanese plays continuously. Written by the artist, the poem’s title translates to Residing in a Castle of Shed Tears. Exploring enduring themes including life asnd death, the poem poignantly expresses Kusama’s hope to spread a universal message of love through her art.

Representing the culmination of her artistic achievements, LOVE IS CALLING exemplifies the breadth of her visual vocabulary– from signature polka dots and soft sculptures to brilliant colors, spoken word and, most importantly, endless reflections and the illusion of never-ending space.

Born in Matsumoto, Japan in 1929, Yayoi Kusama began her artistic education at the Kyoto School of Arts and Crafts. There, she studied Nihonga, a style of formal, traditional Japanese painting that emerged in the Meiji period (1868-1912). Following six solo exhibitions in Japan during her early artistic career, Kusama moved to New York in 1958, inspired by the rise of Abstract Expressionism in the United States. She was one of the first Japanese artists of her generation to make this move, and her early mobility, combined with her openly acknowledged history of mental illness, contributed to a highly visible, eccentric public persona.