Yayoi Kusama

Born

1929-03-22

Died

2026-08-14

Birthplace

Nagano, Japan

Biography

Yayoi Kusama (草間 彌生, Kusama Yayoi; 22 March 1929 – 14 August 2026) was a Japanese contemporary artist who worked primarily in sculpture and installation. She was also active in painting, performance, video art, fashion, poetry, fiction, and other arts. Her work was based in conceptual art and shows some attributes of feminism, minimalism, surrealism, art brut, pop art, and abstract expressionism, and is infused with autobiographical, psychological, and sexual content. She was acknowledged as one of the most important artists to have come out of Japan, and was one of the world's top-selling female artists and ranked #19 in Sotheby's 2023 list of the top 50 artists. Her work influenced her contemporaries, including Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg.