The art world may be slowing down now for the summer but, come fall, expect the return of long lines, timed tickets, and eye-popping Instagrams, courtesy of Yayoi Kusama.
David Zwirner Gallery—which represents the artist along with Victoria Miro in London—announced today that a new Infinity Mirror Room will be the centerpiece of a show set to run in November and December at the gallery’s 20th Street space in New York.
The exhibition will feature Kusama’s signature polka-dot paintings, sculptures, and immersive installations, along with the Infinity Rooms that make for such prime selfies. Although the gallery didn’t elaborate on any plans for increased security, if the past serves as any indication, it can expect a flood of visitors vying for a limited number of tickets, usually meted out for strictly allotted time slots.
If you want an even bigger stage on which to see Kusama this fall, the ICA Boston is celebrating its recently acquired Infinity Room, LOVE IS CALLING (2013), at an upcoming show of the same name, set to run from September 2019 through February 2021. The work, the largest Infinity Room owned by a museum in North America, features tentacle-like inflatable sculptures rising from the floor and dangling from the ceiling like stalagmites in a mirrored, polka-dotted cave.
In 2017, Kusama’s Infinity Rooms took over Zwirner galleries both uptown and downtown, drawing a jaw-dropping 75,000 visitors over the course of an 80-day run. The Hirshhorn Museum also raked in huge numbers while hosting the artist’s touring survey that year. It’s not surprising, then, that museums have since been clamoring for the Kusama effect to grace their institutions.
“Yayoi Kusama” will be on view at David Zwirner, 537 West 20th Street, New York, November 9–December 14, 2019.
“LOVE IS CALLING” is at ICA Boston, 25 Harbor Shore Drive, Boston, Massachusetts, September 24, 2019–February 7, 2021.