- This event has passed.
Kusama: Cosmic Nature Opens @ NYBG
April 10, 2021 @ 10:00 am - 6:00 pm
One event on April 11, 2021 at 10:00 am
An event every week that begins at 10:00 am on Sunday and Saturday, repeating until October 31, 2021
Kusama: Cosmic Nature Opens @ NYBG: The New York Botanical Garden kicks off its reopening with a new exhibition Kusama: Cosmic Nature. The 
exhibit features spectacular installations inspired by pop art from the world renowned Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, celebrating her lifelong love of nature. Including new monumental and immersive works that transform NYBG’s 251 acre landscape.
Born in 1929, Kusama studied traditional Japanese painting at the Kyoto School of Arts and Crafts. She moved to New York City in 1958 to become part of the avant garde scene, moving comfortably from Abstract Expressionism to Pop Art to Hippie Counterculture, where she jumped in with both feet painting polka dots on naked models for happenings she organized. Since the 1970’s Kusama has concentrating on creating installations in museums around the world.
Some notable installations at Kusama: Cosmic Nature include the artist’s legendary Narcissus Garden originally from 1966 and recreated in NYBG’s Native Plant Garden. Nearby you will want to check out 
Ascension of Polka Dots on the Trees, another Kusama classic from 2002 in which she wraps tall trees in vibrant red with white polka dots. This installation is surrounded by the garden’s seasonal horticulture that changes from spring tulips and irises, to summer dahlias and sweetpeas to pumpkins and chrysanthemums in fall.
Kusama: Cosmic Nature will debut several new monumental works from the artist such as Dancing Pumpkin, I Want to Fly to the Universe, and her first ever obliteration greenhouse Flower Obsession. There’s more Kusama to see in and around the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, where her plant-inspired, polka-dotted sculptures intermingle with meadow grasses, bellflowers, and water lilies – surrounded by a seasonal progression of colorful annuals. Including Hymn of Life—Tulips (2007) which is installed in the Conservatory Courtyard Hardy Pool. In the Visitor Gallery you will find her “mesmerizing” Pumpkins Screaming About Love Beyond Infinity (2017).
Finally Kusama’s paintings, biomorphic collages, sculpture, and works on paper are on display in the LuEsther T. Mertz Library Building. Don’t miss the artist’s Walking Piece (ca. 1966), a multiscreen digital projection of a performance work from the artist’s collection, to see her roots in the 1960’s avant garden art scene in the Ross Gallery.
Kusama: Cosmic Nature opens on April 10 and will run through October 31 – however tickets are currently on sale through June 30 only at this time. Tickets are available for the garden and gallery exhibits or just the outdoor exhibits with reduced tickets prices for children 2-12. All tickets are timed-entry and sold online only. Face coverings are required throughout the garden grounds. The Garden is open 10 a.m.–6 p.m., Tuesday to Sunday, and Monday federal holidays.
Related Events
