Yayoi Kusama Covered the World in Dots (12 Photos)
The dots escaped the canvas.
Yayoi Kusama died at a hospital in Tokyo on August 14 at the age of 97, her studio announced on August 27. She continued to paint until her final days.
Her dots had long since spread into public space: a pumpkin at the edge of the sea, a giant likeness leaning over a Paris façade, hundreds of eyes along a courthouse and silver spheres curling above a London station entrance. Here are 12 of her public works and installations.
🔗 Visit Yayoi Kusama’s official site · Follow Yayoi Kusama Museum on Instagram
More: Yayoi Kusama’s Paris Installation
🎃 “Pumpkin” — Naoshima, Japan 🇯🇵
The yellow pumpkin sits alone at the end of a concrete pier on Naoshima, its black dots growing smaller as they follow every ridge. The sea and distant islands sit behind it.
💡 Nerd Fact: The Naoshima Pumpkin was created for the 1994 outdoor exhibition Open Air ’94 “Out of Bounds”. After Typhoon Lupit damaged it in August 2021, a newly created replacement was installed on the same pier on October 4, 2022.
Project: Benesse Art Site Naoshima · Photo: Rahil Chadha, Unsplash License
🔴 “Red Pumpkin” — Naoshima, Japan 🇯🇵
Naoshima’s other pumpkin stands beside Miyanoura Port. Circular openings in the red shell let visitors step inside the sculpture.
💡 Nerd Fact: Red Pumpkin has stood at Miyanoura Port since 2006. Setouchi describes it as the first thing visitors see when the ferry enters Miyanoura Port.
Project: Naoshima Town Tourism Association · Photo: Rena, Unsplash License
🌷 “The Visionary Flowers” — Matsumoto, Japan 🇯🇵
Red, purple, yellow and blue flowers rise from twisting green stems outside the Matsumoto City Museum of Art in Kusama’s hometown. The flowers are reflected in the wet pavement.
💡 Nerd Fact: Created for the museum’s opening in 2002, the work stands more than ten metres high.
Project: The Visionary Flowers · Photo: Rob Oo, CC BY 4.0
🐕 “Love Forever, Singing in Towada” — Towada, Japan 🇯🇵
A yellow pumpkin shares the Art Square outside Towada Art Center with a girl, dogs and mushrooms. The figures are spread across a dotted lawn.
💡 Nerd Fact: The 2010 installation comprises eight separate sculptures, each catalogued with its own title and dimensions.
Project: Towada Art Center collection · Photo: Daderot, CC0
👁️ “Eyes Are Singing Out” — Brisbane, Australia 🇦🇺
Hundreds of black-and-white eyes cover a sloping wall outside the Queen Elizabeth II Courts of Law. They are visible from George Street and through the glass façade from inside the building.
💡 Nerd Fact: The permanent 2012 work spans 90 metres and contains 312 enamelled-steel eyes based on 85 different designs.
Project: QEII Courts of Law public art · Photo: Chris Olszewski, CC BY-SA 3.0
🪩 “Infinite Accumulation” — London, England 🇬🇧
Linked silver spheres bend above the pavement outside Liverpool Street station’s eastern Elizabeth line entrance. Each ball carries a small, distorted version of the buildings, lights and people moving beneath it.
💡 Nerd Fact: Unveiled in 2024, this is Kusama’s first permanent public artwork in the United Kingdom and her largest-ever public sculpture.
Project: Art on the Underground · Photo: The wub, CC BY-SA 4.0
🪞 “Narcissus Garden” — Brumadinho, Brazil 🇧🇷
At Instituto Inhotim, 750 stainless-steel spheres gather on a reflecting pool. Wind shifts the spheres across the water, changing their reflections of the sky, reeds and visitors.
💡 Nerd Fact: At the 1966 Venice Biennale, Kusama placed 1,500 spheres beside the Italian Pavilion and offered them for sale beneath a sign reading “Your narcissism for sale.” Inhotim’s stainless-steel version dates from 2009.
Project: Instituto Inhotim collection · Photo: Stephanie Torres, CC BY 2.0
🌺 “Les Tulipes de Shangri-La” — Lille, France 🇫🇷
Three enormous flowers twist upward at Place François Mitterrand, between Lille’s railway stations. The spotted petals and curling stems tower over the square.
💡 Nerd Fact: Commissioned for Lille 2004 and completed in 2003, it was Kusama’s first permanent work outside Japan and is now part of the City of Lille collection.
Project: Lille 2004 public-art program · Photo: Husky22, CC BY-SA 4.0
🌼 “Hymn of Life: Tulips” — Beverly Hills, California, USA 🇺🇸
This 2011 photograph shows the original fiberglass tulips in Beverly Gardens Park: three spotted flowers leaning into one another inside a circular garden.
💡 Nerd Fact: Installed in 2007, this was Kusama’s first US public-art commission and the first artwork commissioned by the Beverly Hills Fine Arts Commission. The sculpture was refabricated in stainless steel and formally unveiled on March 25, 2026.
Project: City of Beverly Hills Artwalk · Photo: Janice Marie Foote, CC BY 2.0
🔴 Giant Kusama Façade Installation — Paris, France 🇫🇷
A monumental figure made in Kusama’s likeness leaned over the Louis Vuitton Maison at 101 Avenue des Champs-Élysées. With one hand at the wall, she appeared to place oversized red, green, blue, yellow and silver dots across the façade.
💡 Nerd Fact: The 2023 project marked Kusama’s second collaboration with Louis Vuitton, following their first collection in 2012.
Source: Louis Vuitton x Yayoi Kusama · Photo: Street Art Utopia archive; photographer not listed
🌳 “Ascension of Polka Dots on the Trees” — Singapore 🇸🇬
For the 2006 Singapore Biennale, trees along Orchard Road were wrapped in red fabric covered with white dots. Even the hanging spheres joined the pattern.
💡 Nerd Fact: Kusama first presented the work at Japan’s Kirishima Open Air Museum in 2002. She later reimagined it in Helsinki and New York; Melbourne’s 2024 version replaced the usual red fabric with pink.
Project: Singapore Biennale 2006 catalogue · Photo: Terence Ong, CC BY 2.5
♾️ “The Spirits of the Pumpkins Descended into the Heavens” — Photographed in Canberra, Australia 🇦🇺
This 2019 photograph was taken at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra. The installation is now on long-term loan at the Western Plains Cultural Centre in Dubbo. Inside, a yellow room surrounds a mirrored cube filled with several dozen illuminated pumpkins. The mirrors repeat them in every direction.
💡 Nerd Fact: Purchased by the National Gallery of Australia in 2018, the 2017 installation recreates Kusama’s 1991 Mirror Room (Pumpkin), which travelled to the 1993 Venice Biennale.
Project: National Gallery of Australia · Photo: Ncysea, CC BY-SA 4.0
Which one is your favorite?
Yayoi Kusama Sculpture Peers Over Louis Vuitton's Champs Elysées Store
Celebrating the house's second collaboration with the Japanese artist.Aaron Chow (Hypebeast)
