Yayoi Kusama (b. 1929) has made an incredible mark transcending pop art and minimalism, and is one of the most celebrated Japanese artists of the 20th century. Her expansive career spans paintings, performances, large-scale installations, and outdoor sculptures, and she is most known for her use of repetitive motifs, particularly dots, pumpkins, and mirrors. Born in Matsumoto City, Japan, Kusama studied painting in Kyoto before relocating to New York. There, she emerged as a unique voice among contemporaries like Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg, creating art inspired by childhood hallucinations and groundbreaking installations such as "Infinity Mirror Room". Despite her early success, Kusama’s mental health struggles led her to return to Japan in the 1970s, where she lived in relative obscurity until her reemergence at the 1993 Venice Biennale.

Kusama's work is held in numerous museum collections worldwide, including the Art Gallery of Ontario, Centre Pompidou, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Museum of Modern Art in New York, National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo, Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, Tate in the United Kingdom, Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, among many others. Kusama currently lives and works in Tokyo. The Yayoi Kusama Museum, dedicated to her work, opened in Tokyo on October 1, 2017.