Artist Yayoi Kusama is set to be preserved in wax at Madame Tussauds Hong Kong, the Art Newspaper reports, part of an “artistic themed zone” with the Japanese artist at the center.  “I hope everyone who passes through Madame Tussauds Hong Kong can fully embrace the positive energy evoked by the zone,” Kusama said in a statement. (more…)

Yayoi Kusama has unveiled a recently completed version of the Hans Christian Andersen classic, The Little Mermaid, featuring her illustrations for a collaboration with Denmark’s Louisiana Museum of Modern Art.  “In the past few years there have been many exhibitions of my work touring the world,” Kusama said recently.  “I would like people to feel my creation and its message. Once they manage to feel it, I am reminded of the greatness of the hymn of being human and the mystery of it and that makes me very happy.” (more…)

Yayoi Kusama, Chandelier of Grief (2016). All images via Victoria Miro.

Now through July 30th, Victoria Miro in London is presenting new works by Yayoi Kusama, spanning the gallery’s three locations and waterside garden across the British capital.  The work featured here was created exclusively for this show, including the artist’s iconic pumpkin sculptures, immersive mirror rooms, and her ongoing My Eternal Soul series. Across the work exhibited, the artist’s ongoing investment in themes of the infinite and the sublime is explicit. (more…)

Brice Marden, Star (for Patti Smith) (1972-74), via Phillips Auction

Following in the footsteps of an early evening auction at Christie’s just an hour prior, Phillips has logged a staid but consistent auction into the books for its sole evening sale of the spring auction week.  The auction house’s 20th Century Sale achieved moderate success with a final tally of $46,576,000, with only 3 of the 38 lots going unsold.

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Revolution in the Making (Installation View), all photographs courtesy Thisbe Gensler, via Art Observed

This past month has seen the much-anticipated opening of Hauser Wirth & Schimmel’s new gallery space in Los Angeles’ Arts District. The scale of the former flourmill—totaling over 100,000 square feet of exhibition spaces, book store, Printed Matter Lab, courtyard and garden, forthcoming restaurant, as well as offices—rivals the real estate of many museums, as do its curatorial aspirations.  Swiss couple Iwan and Manuela Wirth have partnered with former MOCA curator Paul Schimmel, a definitive fixture of Los Angeles art history and pioneering figure in its contemporary art scene. In his opening remarks during the press opening, Schimmel described his vision of the gallery as a community-driven, public-oriented space that would proffer a seamless urban experience for the creative downtown demographic, not only focused on changing the traditional relationship of the gallery to its public, but also between art and life.  In partnering with Hauser & Wirth, lauded for its museum-caliber exhibitions and dedication to scholarship and publications, Schimmel announced this new institution’s role in serving and revitalizing the arts of Los Angeles. (more…)

Washington, D.C.’s Hirshhorn Museum is preparing the first survey of Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Rooms, set to open next year.  The show will also include a series of the artist’s paintings and installations.  “The real value… is connecting the work she did in the 1960s to her work today through the Infinity Rooms,” says Hirshhorn director Melissa Chiu. (more…)

Yayoi Kusama has executed another iteration of her Narcissus Garden work at the Glass House in Connecticut, floating 1,300 mirrored steel spheres drifting around the property’s newly restored pond.  “We are honored to be working with Yayoi Kusama, an artist Philip Johnson both admired and collected,” said curator Irene Shum. (more…)

Yayoi Kusama is among TIME’s annual 100 Most Influential People List, celebrated by designer Marc Jacobs in a short profile piece.  “Her eyes never left mine, and she held my hand often as she talked to me,” Jacobs writes.  “She kept repeating certain phrases: ‘We must create, we must create, it’s important that we create.’ We spent a few hours together, and every time I tried to leave, she’d pull me back in. It made perfect sense with the art she creates—the intensity, the repetition. She just felt like the embodiment of what she makes.” (more…)

Yayoi Kusama is debuting new work at the Honolulu Biennial, a series of snail sculptures adorned with her signature dot patterns.  “Hawaii is the place I have been admiring at a distance,” the artist says. “I have never visited, but I think it dynamically stimulates my dreams, and I am eager to absorb Hawaii’s beauty fully into my mind.” (more…)

Hauser Wirth and Schimmel is set to open this March, featuring a show of female sculptors, the LA Times reports, including Louise Bourgeois, Eva Hesse, Yayoi Kusama, and others.  The show is inspired by gallery founder Ursula Hauser.  “I come from the museum world, where it’s always best to start with what’s in a collection, with the history of an institution and build out from there,” Schimmel says. “This came from a real personal recognition that these are artists who [Ursula] deeply related to, but were under-appreciated.” (more…)

Willem de Kooning, Untitled XXVIII (1977), via Phillips

Sales resumed for New York’s fall auction weeks yesterday evening, as a Sunday sale at Phillips combined early 20th Century works and contemporary artists in a brisk sale that began strong but stumbled towards the later half of the sale, as 9 of 52 lots ultimately went unsold, achieving a final tally of $66.9 million (just within estimate). (more…)

Bloomberg looks at the popularity of Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Rooms among collectors, and its prominence in a number of major museum collections, including the recently opened Garage Center in Moscow.  “Russians loved Kusama,” says collector Inga Rubenstein. “The work is easy to understand because it’s so beautiful.” (more…)

Yayoi Kusama announced this week that she is ending her partnership with the Gagosian Gallery, and joining David Zwirner Gallery’s already formidable roster of artists.  The news comes after several months of speculation and rumors that Kusama would be breaking her ties with Gagosian. (more…)

Yayoi Kusama is reportedly leaving Gagosian Gallery, reports the ArtNewspaper. Damien Hirst also reportedly broke off his representation of 17 years as well this week. David Zwirner recently announced plans to host a Jeff Koons exhibition a long standing artist of Gagosian. Koons and Kusama currently have shows up at Gagosian locations (Los Angeles and Beverly Hills, respectively). Kusama is represented in London by Victoria Miro.  Hirst is represented in London by White Cube.
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Sean Kelly Gallery, Los Carpinteros, Kosmaj Toy (2012).

All images by A.M. Ekstrand for ArtObserved, on location at Art Basel Miami Beach Fair.

Art Basel returned once again in Miami Beach this past week for the 11th annual Art Basel Miami Beach Fair. Featuring over 300 galleries representing 36 countries around the world, the show has exhibited marked growth from last year’s event, with well over 2,000 artists flocking to exhibit at what has become the internationally-renowned closing party for the world art market each year.  It is of course always an irony that tens of thousands will fly down for the events and parties, with many of them never visiting the vast aggregation of what it said to be roughly $1.5 billion worth of art in one (large) room, a collection that few museums in the world could compete with.   Below is a selection of some of the works we thought to be notable from the fair.

Helly Nahmad Gallery, Mark Rothko No. 1 (1957) and Alexander Calder, installation view

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Art Basel Miami Beach VIP Preview Entrance, all photos on site for Art Observed by Erica Schwartzberg

On Wednesday, December 5th, 2012, Art Basel Miami Beach hosted its 11th annual VIP Preview at the Miami Beach Convention Center. Organizers claim Art Basel Miami has surpassed its Swiss sister Art Basel in size and popularity, though it has yet to surpass attendance figures (62,500 people in 2010). This year, 680 galleries competed to show at Art Basel Miami and 257 were selected. More than 2,000 artists are represented and attendance is expected to top last year’s 55,000 figure. Though definitive sales reports are difficult to pin down (Art Basel Miami never releases official records), $2.5 billion worth of art was on offer in 2011, and several galleries reported record sales. VIP guests include business magnates Steve Wynn, who purchased a Roy Lichtenstein, and Eli Broad, who purchased a Jeff Koons sculpture. Newsprint mogul Peter Brant gave Owen Wilson a tour, and Will Ferrell ceded the stage to his wife Viveca, who sits on the board of the Los Angeles County Museum. Also spotted: Sean “Puffy” Combs purchasing an Ivan Navarro sculpture, Diane von Furstenberg, comedian/actress Chelsea Handler, and music mogul Russell Simmons. The following is a photoset from the 2012 Art Basel Miami Beach VIP Preview.

Jesús Rafael Soto, Cubo de Roma, Galeria Elvira Gonzalez

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Art Basel Miami Beach 2011 photo by ArtObserved

Despite the large number of exhibitors from New York who are in recovery from Hurricane Sandy, almost  every Chelsea gallery scheduled to exhibit will be at this year’s 11th edition of Art Basel Miami Beach week. Events begin as early as today, Monday, December 3rd and run through Sunday, December 9th. Exhibitors and artists are preparing for a flurry of activity, with a multitude of fairs, some old, some new; public installations, exhibitions, collaborations and of course, parties centering around the Delano, The W, Soho Beach House, The Deauville, The Raleigh, The Standard and others. Check out the detailed schedule of events below.

Visionaire Magazine party at Delano Hotel 2011 photo by ArtObserved

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Toby Ziegler‘s The Cripples, image via Art Observed

Back in 2003 in Frieze’s first year, no major international art fair had ever been hosted in London before. Frieze Art Fair, organized by Matthew Slotover and Amanda Sharp, has helped take London from being a city without a focused art scene to its current state at the center of the European art market. Now in its tenth year, Frieze Art Fair in London’s Regent’s Park has seen around 60,000 visitors, with 264 dealers from 35 countries hoping to sell work (valuing an estimated  £230m) created by more than 2,400 artists within 175 of the world’s leading galleries.

An Aaron Young motorcycle burn out work at Massimo de Carlo in Milan, photo via Art Observed

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Tim Noble and Sue Webster - Deadalive (2012), Saatchi Gallery

Over the past several years, the artists’ studio, RS&A, has commissioned 16 recognized artists to create their own chess sets and boards, allowing them to explore and reconfigure the image of the classic game.  Including sets by Maurizio Cattelan, Tracey Emin, Tom Friedman, Damien Hirst, Barbara Kruger, Yayoi Kusama and Paul McCarthy, the full collection is currently on view at Saatchi Gallery in London.

Yayaoi Kusama - Pumpkin Chess (2003), Saatchi Gallery

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Yayoi Kusama to cover condo construction site in the Meatpacking District with ‘Yellow Trees,’ a familiar black and yellow design that was prominently featured in an advertising campaign for her current exhibition at the Whitney. Part of the Urban Canvas project, the costly installation opens this week and will remain on the West 14th Street building facade until September 30th of this year.

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All photographs taken by Zoe Zabor for Art Observed

Coinciding with the recent unveiling of her newly designed Louis Vuitton displays and last week’s opening of her Retrospective at the Whitney, Yayoi Kusama has spread her signature red and white dots to the lawn of Hudson River Park. Presented by the Gagosian Gallery and the Hudson River Park Trust,  “Guidepost to the New Space” (2004) features unique, amoeba-shaped forms at Pier 45 on West 10th Street, close to the Whitney’s future location in the Meatpacking District.

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Yayoi Kusama, Fireflies on the Water (2002) – Whitney Museum

Multi-media artist Yayoi Kusama has been creating immersive, otherworldly paintings, video, sculpture and large-scale installation environments for over 50 years, both in the United States and her home country of Japan.  Now, the Whitney Museum in New York is exhibiting a retrospective selection of works spanning her career as a preeminent voice in Japanese contemporary art.

Yayoi Kusama, A Flower (1952)- Whitney Museum

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The New York Magazine examines Yayoi Kusama‘s position in the art world after a 40 year stint in a mental hospital. The Japanese artist voices her opinions on her mental illness, her youth, and her old contemporaries, including Andy Warhol, stating that “he lived near me and appropriated my ideas, only he was too late because I have already realized them. We don’t hear his name now so much in Japan.”

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Louis Vuitton further developing its collaboration with Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, is to open seven pop-up shops around the world. Beginning with the New York location debut on July 10, the boutiques are to be designed in polka dots and feature new spotted apparel and accessories.

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