Yayoi Kusama’s Two Fantastic Infinity Rooms at David Zwirner Gallery
Yayoi Kusama can really did no wrong as far as I'm concerned. I love her delightful, polka-dotted sculptures, like signature pumpkin room at Gagosian Art Gallery and her exhibition at the Whitney Museum last year. I love her big, bright, obsessively-filled-in paintings.
I love her dark, disturbing early work, from the 1950s. I love her furniture. And the way she dresses. And, like everyone else, I love Yayoi Kusama's mind-blowing Infinity Rooms, two of which are now on view at the artist's huge new exhibition at David Zwirner's Chelsea galleries.
Magical Infinity Room
Yayoi Kusama's Infinity Rooms at David Zwirner each work on the same principle–basically: cool lighting stretched into forever via mirrors–but they're different enough that you definitely want to check out both. The first, in its own gallery at the eastern end Zwirner's 19th Street empire, is called Love Is Calling (top), and as you can see it's like a never-ending crazy cavern filled with wild, tentacle-y stalactites and -mites. The second Infinity installation is The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away (above), a magical, twinkling room with a watery floor, similar to her Fireflies piece at the Whitney two summers ago. Both are fantastic, with this caveat: you will almost certainly have to wait in line to get into either… and, depending on the day and time you show up (I would advise against Saturday at, say 2:00), that line may be very, very long. And because there are so many people waiting, your time inside the room is strictly limited to 40 seconds. Such is life in a city of eight million people.
The Mesmerizing Effects of Kusama's Art
The Infinity Rooms are hardly the only reason to go see Yayoi Kusama's "I Who Have Arrived In Heaven" exhibition. David Zwirner just recently began representing Kusama, so all of the 27 large-scale paintings here are new works. And while I must admit liking it more when Kusama completely fills her canvases with her hallucinatory patterns, these definitely have their own charm and appeal. The most unexpected of pleasures was Kusama's video installation, Manhattan Suicide Addict, for which the artist recites a poem of sorts in front of a changing backdrop of her typically insane/beautiful patterns. Mesmerizing stuff.
More Information: Yayoi Kusama Infinity Rooms
Yayoi Kusama's two Infinity Rooms and the rest of the I Who Have Arrived in heaven exhibition will be at David Zwirner through December 21. The gallery is located on 19th Street between 10th and 11th Avenues and is open Tuesday through Saturday from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
Posted in NYC Events | Tagged david zwirner gallery • Yayoi Kusama Art • yayoi kusama infinity room
