Japan’s Yayoi Kusama (b. 1929) is one of the world’s most prominent contemporary artists. Her signature style is recognizable across a wide range of media from drawing and painting to sculpture, installation, performance, happenings and literature.
She resonates aesthetic elements from many cultures in her unique blend of Surrealism and Pop Art. Her never-ending complex patterns and countless variations of polka dots and grids in bright, bold colours are often interpreted as expressions of the artist’s mental health troubles and the idea of healing and care through art.
She brings uncanny flower power to Helsinki Biennial with a human-sized sculpture, abstracted in form and riotously garish in colour scheme.
Artwork location: HAM Helsinki Art Museum
Photo: Courtesy of the artist