Ticket sales have been brisk in a pandemic-weary city hungry for more outdoor cultural events.
‘Kusama: Cosmic Nature,’ postponed by a year due to the coronavirus, will remain on view through Halloween.
NY garden show is a major success
Most of the artworks are outdoors and are big enough to enjoy while remaining socially distanced.
Visitors will want to wear their walking shoes; the show features multiple galleries, installations and gardens.
Elaborate flower displays complement some of the works, which are scattered over the 250-acre botanical garden in the Bronx.
The setting could not be more suitable for Kusama’s multifaceted works, all of which relate in various ways to the world of nature.
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Yayoi Kusama’s artistic work owes much to her engagement with the natural world; as a child she would spend hours among the fields of her family’s seed nursery in Matsumoto. In this display at New York Botanical Garden (until 31 October), early works such as her
Narcissus Garden (1966) are installed amid the flowers; there are also two new monumental sculptures,
Dancing Pumpkin and
I Want to Fly to the Universe, and her hallucinatory ‘obliteration greenhouse’,
Flower Obsession (2017). It’s also a great opportunity, were any needed, to take a look at the NYBG’s famous rose garden, the native plant garden, and its Victorian-style greenhouses. Find out more from the NYBG’s website.
Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama has poured over a thousand mirrored balls into a pond and covered the trees of the New York Botanical Garden in polka dots as part of a park-wide exhibition.
The site-specific installations were created as part of the 2021 exhibition Kusama: Cosmic Nature, which has been creatively installed around the gardens in New York.
Top: Narcissus Garden forms part of the Kusama: Cosmic Nature exhibition. Above: Ascension of Polka Dots on the Trees was created by Yayoi Kusama
The show, which was postponed from last year due to the coronavirus pandemic, is open to visitors until 10 October.
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Yayoi Kusama,
Dancing Pumpkin, 2020. Courtesy: the artist Otis Fine Arts, Tokyo, David Zwirner, New York and the New York Botanical Garden
Yayoi Kusama: Cosmic Nature
New York Botanical Garden, USA
Yayoi Kusama’s monumental sculptures take over the grounds of the New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) in the Bronx. Inspired by time the artist spent on her family’s seed nursery as a child, ‘Cosmic Nature’ features her most iconic installations, including
By Margherita Cole on April 14, 2021
“Dancing Pumpkin,” 2020, The New York Botanical Garden, Urethane paint on bronze, 196 7/8 x 116 7/8 x 117 1/4 in., Collection of the artist. Courtesy of Ota Fine Arts and David Zwirner. Photo by Robert Benson Photography.
Since her early childhood, contemporary artist Yayoi Kusama has found creative inspiration in nature. From polka dot pumpkins to flower “obliterations,” she captures plantlife in her own distinctive style. Now, audiences will be able to see Kusama s colorful art installed outdoors in a new exhibition at the New York Botanical Garden. Entitled
KUSAMA: Cosmic Nature, this show features a comprehensive collection of the artist s nature-themed artwork many of which were created specifically for the event spread across the site s 250-acre landscape.