The most extensive Yayoi Kusama exhibition ever mounted in Australia has opened in Melbourne, featuring the largest assembly of the artist's polka dot installations ever gathered in one location. Olivia Palamountain reports

The Yayoi Kusama retrospective, which opened on December 15, 2024, at the National Gallery of Victoria (NGV), transforms the entire ground floor with 200 works spanning the 94-year-old artist's eight-decade career and includes ten of her signature immersive artworks - an unprecedented number in a single venue.

At the heart of the exhibition is the world premiere of Infinity Mirrored Room–My Heart is Filled to the Brim with Sparkling Light, 2024, which invites visitors into a spectacular space that opens into what appears to be an endless celestial universe.

The installation continues Kusama's pioneering work with mirrored environments, which she first began creating in the 1960s. The gallery has also unveiled Dancing Pumpkin, a colossal five-metre-tall bronze sculpture newly acquired by NGV.

The yellow-and-black polka-dotted work allows visitors to walk beneath its towering form. Alongside this, the Australian premiere of The Hope of the Polka Dots Buried in Infinity Will Eternally Cover the Universe (2019) engulfs viewers within six-metre-high tentacular forms adorned with Kusama's characteristic dots.A striking new iteration of Narcissus Garden greets visitors at the gallery entrance. The installation, which Kusama first presented unofficially at the 1966 Venice Biennale, comprises 1,400 stainless steel balls, each 30 centimetres in diameter, creating an infinitely reflecting landscape. The NGV is seeking to acquire this work through its 2024 Annual Appeal.The exhibition extends beyond traditional gallery spaces, with Kusama's vision transforming Melbourne itself. The NGV's iconic waterwall features a site-specific artwork, while the Great Hall hosts Dots Obsession, with enormous inflated spheres floating above visitors. Outside, more than 60 plane trees along St Kilda Road wear pink-and-white polka dot coverings in Ascension of Polka Dots on the Trees.Rare archival materials reveal Kusama's radical performance art and activism of the 1960s, including photographs, films, letters, and experimental fashion designs. The chronological display begins with sketches and paintings from her childhood in 1930s Matsumoto, following her journey to New York's avant-garde scene and through to her contemporary works.

"There are few artists working today with the global presence of Yayoi Kusama," says NGV Director Tony Ellwood AM. "This world-premiere exhibition allows audiences to experience Kusama's practice in deeper and more profound ways than ever before."Families can visit the free children's gallery featuring "The Obliteration Room", where visitors participate in Kusama's artistic process by covering a white interior with coloured dots. The gallery is also presenting special programmes, including NGV Friday Nights and a collaboration with Asia TOPA festival featuring "Pulau (Island)", a dance performance responding to Kusama's work, scheduled for February 2025.

The exhibition, which runs until April 21, 2025, draws significant loans from major Japanese institutions including The National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo and Kyoto, alongside works from the artist's personal collection and private collections across Asia and Australia.