草間彌生

Yayoi Kusama transformed her hallucinations into art, turning childhood visions of multiplying patterns into a lifelong practice. Born in Matsumoto in 1929, she trained in traditional Japanese painting before rejecting its constraints. Moving to New York in 1958, she became a leading figure of the 1960s avant-garde, creating vast infinity nets of dots and organizing provocative happenings that challenged social norms. Her soft sculptures, mirror rooms, and obsessive repetitions of polka dots and pumpkins became iconic.