The artwork and installations keeping the memory of Yayoi Kusama alive

Yayoi Kusama’s art was never designed to be easily forgotten.

From mirrored rooms, monumental pumpkins, endless polka dots and immersive installations, the Japanese artist created a visual language that could transform almost any space into something otherworldly. Now, following her death this month, aged 97, those works take on another significance: they are places where Kusama’s presence, ideas and extraordinary imagination continue to live on and be experienced.

From permanent public sculptures in London and Japan to Infinity Mirror Rooms in some of the world’s most important museums, Kusama’s legacy exists far beyond the galleries that have exhibited her work. Many of her most recognisable pieces can still be visited today, offering a way to encounter the artist through the environments she created.

‘Infinite Accumulation’ by Yayoi Kusama – now on view at Liverpool Street station! Yayoi Kusama’ (1)

‘Infinite Accumulation’ by Yayoi Kusama – now on view at Liverpool Street station! Yayoi Kusama’

One of Kusama’s most striking permanent works can be found somewhere art enthusiasts might not expect: outside London’s Liverpool Street station. Infinite Accumulation was unveiled in 2024, stands outside the eastern entrance to the Elizabeth line and is Kusama’s first permanent public artwork in the UK, as well as her largest public sculpture anywhere in the world. More than 10 metres high and 12 metres wide, the site-specific installation consists of gleaming silver spheres connected by sweeping, serpentine structures. The highly polished, chrome-like surfaces reflect commuters, the weather and the surrounding city, making the city and the people passing through part of the artwork itself. Kusama conceived the spheres as representing individual personalities, while the supporting curves suggest the social structures that connect them. Its location makes the work particularly fitting: rather than requiring a museum visit, Infinite Accumulation encounters thousands of people every day as they move through one of London’s busiest transport hubs.

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Pumpkin Yayoi Kusama Naoshima Japan via unsplash rebecca-lam

Few works are as closely associated with Kusama as the yellow, black-spotted Pumpkin on Japan’s Naoshima island. Installed on a wooden pier outside the Benesse House Museum in 1994, the sculpture has become almost inseparable from the identity of the island, which has developed into an international centre for contemporary art. The location is fundamental to the work. Set against the Seto Inland Sea, the bright yellow sculpture stands at the end of the pier, its oversized form contrasting with the blue water and surrounding greenery. The original was swept into the sea by Typhoon Lupit in 2021, but a newly created Pumpkin was installed at the same location in 2022. Its return was more than a restoration of a popular artwork; it restored one of Naoshima’s defining landmarks.

Red Pumpkin Yayoi Kusama Naoshima Japan via unsplash rena-ObcRXCEBTQs

Sitting at the ferry terminal of Miyanoura Port, on edge of the Seto Inland Sea, Yayoi Kusama’s Red Pumpkin has become one of Japan’s most recognisable contemporary art landmarks. Its bold red-and-black polka dots contrast with Naoshima’s tranquil coastal landscape, inviting visitors to step inside the sculpture and experience Kusama’s playful, surreal world. The bright red colour and impactful, iconic Kusama print contrasting against the water, the pumpkin has become an emblem of Naoshima’s transformation into a global destination for contemporary art.

yayoi-kusama-green-pumpkin hong kong

Located at Kai Tak's The Twins, a three-metre-tall emerald-green polka-dotted pumpkin serves as her first permanent outdoor work in the city. Yayoi Kusama’s Green Pumpkin is an instantly recognisable symbol of the artist’s playful, surrealist style. Covered in her signature black polka dots, the oversized sculpture brings a sense of colour and whimsy to Kai Tak’s evolving waterfront, where art, architecture and the city’s dramatic landscape meet. The pumpkin’s familiar form and striking setting make it an unmissable stop for contemporary art lovers exploring Hong Kong.

Kusama Pop Exhibition via IG YayoiKusamaMuseum

Kusma Pop via ig The Yayoi Kusama Museum will

The Yayoi Kusama Museum in Tokyo is the artist’s dedicated museum in Shinjuku, Tokyo. Offering one of the most intimate and immediate ways to experience Kusama’s work in the city; opened in 2017, the museum presents rotating exhibitions drawn from her extensive body of paintings, sculptures, installations and works on paper, alongside the immersive installations for which she is internationally known. Its programme changes regularly rather than functioning as a permanent display, with the current KUSAMA’s POP exhibition running until August 30, 2026.

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Opening in Amsterdam on 11 September, the Stedelijk Museum’s major Yayoi Kusama retrospective will bring together more than seven decades of the artist’s work, from early paintings and sculptures to her celebrated Infinity Mirror Rooms. Running from September 11, 2026 to January 17, 2027, this exhibition stands as a definitive culmination of Yayoi Kusama’s legacy. Organised in collaboration with the Fondation Beyeler in Switzerland and Museum Ludwig in Cologne, the showcase represents the final European destination of her touring anthology. Following Kusama’s death on August 14, the exhibition will now serve as a posthumous tribute to her extraordinary career and influence.

@stedelijkmuseum

Infinity Mirrored Room — The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away Lost Angeles

Kusama’s most immersive work is found at The Broad in Los Angeles, where Infinity Mirrored Room—The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away is part of the museum’s permanent collection. Created in 2013, the installation uses mirrors, darkness and hundreds of points of light to create the illusion of an endless cosmos. Visitors enter the mirrored room in small groups, surrounded by lights that appear to recede indefinitely. The experience is brief — viewing is limited to one minute — but the effect is deliberately expansive, placing the visitor inside one of Kusama’s recurring explorations of infinity and the relationship between the individual and the universe. 

@thebroadmuseum

Infinity Mirrored Room lets survive forever Yayoi Kusama via AGO

At the Art Gallery of Ontario, Infinity Mirrored Room - Let's Survive Forever remains on view until October 25, 2026. Created in 2017, the installation surrounds visitors with stainless-steel spheres suspended from the ceiling and arranged across the floor, with mirrors multiplying them into an apparently endless field of silver. The work is part of the AGO’s permanent collection and is included with general admission. There is no advance reservation specifically for the room: access is first come, first served, with up to four people entering for a maximum of 60 seconds at a time. The AGO notes that admission to the museum does not guarantee access to the installation, so arriving with some flexibility is advisable.

@agotoronto

Yayoi Kusama’s work has always been about more than the initial visual.

Her mirrored rooms place visitors inside the artwork, her reflective sculptures turn passersby into participants, her repeating motifs make the offbeat feel familiar. It is a signature aesthetic that renders her work instantly recognisable, securing a legacy that will continue to resonate for generations.

And for now, her legacy remains remarkably accessible. You can encounter Infinite Accumulation on a London commute, walk through a mirrored pumpkin installation in Cincinnati, lose yourself among silver spheres in Toronto or explore seven decades of work in Amsterdam from September. Kusama’s art may now belong to history, but these installations ensure that it remains something audiences can still experience first-hand.