《YAYOI KUSAMA Singing in Towada 》

We are proud to present our memorial grand opening memorial exhibition of Yayoi Kusama, a leading avant-garde artist in Japan. Kusama has kindly dedicated her large-scale, outdoor installation “Love Forever, Singing in Towada” as a permanent exhibit to Art Square around Towada Art Center. Yayoi Kusama is currently one of the most notable Japanese contemporary artists who command a wide range of international attention. Inspired by her childhood hallucinatory experiences, her paintings of ever-multiplying polka dots and nets that she produced during her stay in New York in the 60’s gained her worldwide recognition. Since then, she has been chosen as a representative of Japan for the 45th Venice Biennale in 1993, and has been highly admired by audiences around the world. As a part of the exhibition, art pieces will be installed not only in Art Center but also in various locations around Central Shopping area, turning Towada city into the powerful world of Kusama’s art. It is incredible to learn that over the past half century, Yayoi Kusama has been actively creating a wide range of art pieces in various mediums including paintings, sculptures, installations, as well as novels and poems. In our grand opening exhibition of her artworks, we will feature a range of her art from some of her early works to her latest sculptures, presenting the whole universe of Yayoi Kusama.

■Outline

Venue: Towada Art Center, around Central Shopping area
Open from 10:00 to 17:00, except on April 24 (open from 11:00) ※Please enter by 16:30
Closed every Monday, except when the day of the week falls on national holidays. In this case, Towada Art Center will be closed the following day. Also, please note that it will be open on April 26, July 19, August 2, and August 16.
Admission fees: 400 Yen for adults, 300 Yen per visitor for parties of over 20 people, and free admission for high school students and below.  ※An additional admission fee is required to view permanent exhibitions.
Organized by: Towada Art Center
Curated by: NANJO and ASSOCIATES
Support by: Yayoi Kusama Studio, Matsumoto City Museum of Art, Forever Museum of Contemporary Art, ART CONSULTING FIRM CO., LTD., The Towada Chamber for the Commerce and Industry, The Federation of Towada City’s Shopping Streets, The executive committee for the Art Channel Towada, Yonezawa Furniture Center Co.,Ltd, Machidukuri Inaoi Co.,Ltd, Machidukuri Towada Co.,Ltd
In Cooperation with: The To-o Nippo Press Co., Ltd., The Daily Tohoku Shimbun, Inc., Aomori Broadcasting Corporation, Aomori Television Broadcasting Co., Asahi Broadcasting Aomori

■Artist YAYOI KUSAMA

YAYOI KUSAMA is an avant-garde artist and novelist. She has been producing fantastical paintings with the combined patterns of polka dots and nets since she was 10 years old. In 1957, she moved to the United States, and established herself as a rising avant-garde artist in the art industry through her strikingly original works and performances. Since returning to Japan, she has continued to travel the world for her artistic activities, publishing a number of novels and poems at the same time. In 1983, her novel "The Hustlers Grotto of Christopher Street" won the 10th Literary Award for New Writers from the monthly magazine Yasei Jidai. Moreover, some of her most prominent accolades include: the 50th Education Minister's Art Encouragement Prize and Foreign-Minister's Commendations In 2000, the Asahi Prize in 2001, the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Officier) and the Nagano Governor Prize (for the contribution in encouragement of art and culture) in 2003, the Order of the Rising Sun, and the 18th Praemium Imperiale in Painting in 2006, and Person of Cultural Merits in Japan in 2009. At the moment, she is planning on a traveling exhibition throughout Europe and the United States.