Located on level 2 in gallery 224, the Signy Eaton North Gallery. Access to the artwork is via Galleria Italia.
Admission is always FREE for AGO Members, AGO Annual Pass Holders & Visitors 25 and under. Learn more.
For more than 60 years, Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama (born 1929) has invited people to participate in her groundbreaking visions of infinity. Over the past three decades, this prolific experimental artist has become an internationally acclaimed art-world icon, with work presented across the globe.
INFINITY MIRRORED ROOM - LET’S SURVIVE FOREVER features mirrored spheres suspended from the ceiling and arranged on the floor. A mirrored column inside the room invites visitors to peer into a seemingly infinite field of silver orbs.
Thanks to the generosity of over 4,700 #InfinityAGO donors who participated in the AGO's ambitious crowdfunding campaign and the David Yuile & Mary Elizabeth Hodgson Fund, Yayoi Kusama’s INFINITY MIRRORED ROOM - LET’S SURVIVE FOREVER is now a part of the AGO Collection.
Yayoi Kusama's work has transcended two of the most important art movements of the second half of the twentieth century: pop art and minimalism. Her highly influential career spans paintings, performances, room-size presentations, outdoor sculptural installations, literary works, films, fashion, design, and interventions within existing architectural structures, which allude at once to microscopic and macroscopic universes.
Born in 1929 in Matsumoto, Japan, Kusama’s work has been featured widely in both solo and group exhibitions. She presented her first solo show in Japan in 1952. In the mid-1960s, she lived in New York where she became an important avant-garde artist by staging groundbreaking and influential happenings, events, and exhibitions. In 1965 Kusama produced her first Infinity Mirror Room. Building on the repetition found in her paintings and sculptures, this artwork used mirrors to create an illusion of infinite space. Since then Kusama has made more than 20 unique rooms.
She returned to Japan in 1973. Her work gained widespread recognition in the late 1980s following a number of international solo exhibitions, including shows at the Center for International Contemporary Arts, New York and the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, England, which both took place in 1989. She represented Japan in 1993 at the 45th Venice Biennale to much critical acclaim. At age 90 Yayoi Kusama continues to produce interactive, infinity-like spaces, as well as paintings and sculptures.
Yayoi Kusama with recent works in Tokyo, 2016. Courtesy of the artist © Yayoi Kusama, Photo by Tomoaki Makino
Contemporary programming at the AGO is generously supported by Canada Council for the Arts
Yayoi Kusama’s stunning artwork INFINITY MIRRORED ROOM - LET’S SURVIVE FOREVER goes on view to the public June 22. Plan your visit today, and be sure to #seeAGO with your friends.
Click to expand and see the list of donors for each level of donation.
David Yuile & Mary Elizabeth Hodgson Fund
Diane Bald & Michael Budman, Don & Denyse Green
Michelle Koerner & Kevin Doyle
Robert Dorrance & Gail Drummond
The Schulich Foundation
Soichiro & Junko Yamamoto
DH Gales Foundation
Maxine Granovsky Gluskin & Ira Gluskin
Barry Appleton & Magaly Bianchini
Emmanuelle Gattuso
Sheryle & David Saunders
Robin & David Young
ARTWORK IMAGE CREDITS: Yayoi Kusama, INFINITY MIRRORED ROOM - LET'S SURVIVE FOREVER, 2017. Wood, metal, glass mirrors, LED lighting system, monofilament, stainless steel balls, and carpet, 123 x 246 x 245 1/4 inches/312.4 x 624.8 x 622.9 cm. © YAYOI KUSAMA. Courtesy David Zwirner, New York; Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo/Singapore/Shanghai; Victoria Miro, London/Venice.
Purchased with funds from the David Yuile & Mary Elizabeth Hodgson Fund, Michelle Koerner & Kevin Doyle, Robert Dorrance & Gail Drummond, The Schulich Foundation, Soichiro & Junko Yamamoto, Diane Bald & Michael Budman, Don & Denyse Green, DH Gales Foundation, Maxine Granovsky Gluskin & Ira Gluskin, Barry Appleton & Magaly Bianchini, Emmanuelle Gattuso, Sheryle & David Saunders, Robin & David Young, Laura E. Baldini, Diana Billes, Edison Chai, Julian Chan & Yi Hyun Park, The Francis and Denise Connolly Family, Creeds, Eileen Farrow, Ivan Fecan & Sandra Faire, Hallisey Family, Victoria Jackman, Val Koziol, David Kozman & Kristin Blakely-Kozman, The Charles & Jane Kucey Foundation Fund, Jämes Lee & the Julie Institute, Chelsea Longaphy & Bernie Li, Martha LA McCain, Abby, Perry & Jordan Minuk, Carolyn D. Mullin, Samuel & Alice Peralta, In Memory of Pierrette & Abel Rancourt, Heather & Aaron Regent, Shevlen Family, Mary Sinclair, Jay Smith & Laura Rapp, J. Kenneth & Margaret Syer-Torrance, and the generosity of thousands of art lovers, 2018
