Get your camera ready and step into infinity at artist Yayoi Kusama’s new otherworldly exhibit, “New York: Festival of Life,” which opened Nov. 2 at David Zwirner Gallery in Chelsea.
The Instagram-famous exhibit has sold out multiple times in Los Angeles, where it’s been on view since late September, and New York is next in line for the hype.
Two rooms inside the gallery, at 525 and 533 W. 19th St., are equipped with mirrors and lights that lend the appearance of infinity — a space that goes on forever.
The first room sets mirrors on large stainless steel balls, which sit on the floor and hang from the ceiling.
The second room invites visitors to look through peepholes, where small color-changing light bulbs create a hexagonal pattern that seemingly continues forever in kaleidoscopic fashion.
Those who find their way through the first two rooms may not be as lucky when navigating Kusama’s next work, “With all my Love for the Tulips, I Pray Forever.” Completely covered in polka dots and featuring oversized potted and polka-dotted tulips, the room aims to diminish the viewer’s perception of depth.
More than 60 paintings from the artist’s “My Eternal Soul” series and new large flower sculptures will also be on view in Chelsea, and her large “Infinity Net” paintings, which depict minutely drawn nets across monochromatic backgrounds, will be at the gallery’s Upper East Side space at 34 E. 69th St. and at the Judd Foundation at 101 Spring St.
David Zwirner opened the exhibit on Nov. 2, saying it creates a “hallucinatory field of vision” and “underscores the obessiveness and intensity with which Yusama is working in her studio this stage in her career.”
“Festival of Life” has been very well received in Los Angeles, where The Broad art museum reports that tickets often sell out, and wait times exceed one hour.
Kusama, 88, who has her own museum in Tokyo, is well known for her colorful, larger-than-life creations, which have been shown in galleries around the world since the 1950s.
The new show will be free to the public and run Tuesdays through Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. (closed Thanksgiving Day,) through Dec. 16. For more information, visit davidzwirner.com.
