30.9.14

Yayoi Kusama's Pumpkins

Between the towering cranes and construction that envelope the landscape of East London, a super-sizing of quite another sort may be found behind the walls of Victoria Miro’s Wharf Road gallery. In my latest blog entry for Ohh Deer, I visit a new body of work by visionary artist Yayoi Kusama. A series of three oversized pumpkins lie on the gallery’s enviable water garden – a fitting synergy with the Japanese artist’s longstanding intrigue of the natural world.
Pumpkins, 2014 by Yayoi Kusama - Victoria Miro, Wharf Road gallery London
Pumpkins mark the first time Kusama has worked with bronze on this scale, ranging from knee to head height. The plant has played a prolific role in the eccentric artist’s career – first making an appearance as early as 1948. After over five decades, Kusama affirms there is much more fantasy to be explored with this bulbous form, reinterpreted in her trademark Pop aesthetic that has been revered in major international exhibitions to commercial collaborations with luxury fashion house Louis Vuitton, under the direction of Marc Jacobs, as well as t-shirt graphics for Japanese retailer Uniqlo.

My full review Yayoi Kusama’s Pumpkins - on show until 19th December 2014 in the Victoria Miro garden - is now available to read on the Ohh Deer blog.

Look out for other public artworks by the artist during Frieze London 2014 at Frieze Sculpture Park in the English Garden in Regent’s Park between 15th - 19th October 2014. 

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Image courtesy of Victoria Miro