Seeing Spots: A Review of LA's New Yayoi Kusama Exhibition

Wearing my favorite pink spotted jacket, I was ready to experience the beauty of Kusama's world full of dots, vibrant colors, and illuminated infinity rooms. The Thursday night preview I attended for The Broad Museums first visiting special exhibition, Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors, was everything I dreamed it would be!

During the age of Instagrammable art, it's easy to see why Kusama's infinity mirrored rooms appear so often in our social media feeds. Since the opening of The Broad, Kusama's original Infinity Mirrored Room is a popular attraction for LA natives and tourists all over the world. Now six more of Kusama's beloved infinity rooms will be open for public viewing on October 21st. If you were one of the lucky ones to grab a ticket, estimated time to complete the exhibition is approximately 90 mins and each guest will be given 30 seconds to experience the infinity rooms for themselves. Didn't get your ticket in time? Your luck could change if you wake up early enough. The museum will be selling limited quantities of tickets on site before doors open. Good luck!

Now for the review: Rooms in order of appearance at The Broad.

Dots Obsession—Love Transformed into Dots

The room that inspired my outfit for the evening, Kusama's polka-dot balloons, welcomes you at the door and brings a smile to your face. These inflatable objects hang from the ceiling and come in all sorts of sizes, large, small and everything in between. The first room features several of these bubbly pink balloons that serve as the perfect Pepto-Bismol backdrop for your pictures.

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Infinity Mirror Room—Phalli's Field

I'll let you figure out the meaning of this installation for yourself...but this was by far my favorite room in the exhibition. The colors were so vibrant and pretty. I was in awe of Kusama's attention to detail and sewing skills. Kusama hand painted thousands of stuffed fabric tubers to create this room and the view was not short of spectacular!

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Infinity Mirrored Room—Love Forever

The only room you can't walk into, Love Forever, let's you peak through a small window into the rainbow colored abyss with a guest. The installation gave me serious flashbacks to visiting the Robot Restaurant in Japan.

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Infinity Mirrored Room—Aftermath of Obliteration of Eternity

Dark and mesmerizing, this infinity room was lit up by thousands of tiny LED candles to recreate a lantern festival. One of the most intimate and calming environments, this room was simple but powerful.

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Infinity Mirrored Room—All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins

Yayoi Kusama is known for her pumpkins and this room was a visual love note to her obsession with the fruit. Due to previous damage done to one of the pumpkins caused by a selfie wielding tourist, this is the only room in which you cannot take a photo. So take a deep breath, put down your phone, and enjoy the ambiance.

Note: My friend sent this pumpkin image to me from a previous Kusama exhibition before the picture ban was enforced. 

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Infinity Mirrored Room—Obliteration Room

Finally a chance to become a part of the art installation, place your dotted sticker pack anywhere you want. My second favorite room, I can't wait to see this place transformed by thousands of colored dots!

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If you're a fan of Kusama's work then I highly recommend putting this exhibition on your bucket list, online pictures don't do justice for her work! Make sure you come with a fully charged battery on your phone, comfortable shoes for the long wait times and a friend to help you take those cute shots.

Shout out to the bestie for hooking it up with the sneak preview and to all the Broadies who informed me more about Yayoi Kusama's personal life and artwork. Hope you enjoyed this post and let me know what room you're looking forward to the most in the comments below!