Entering Infinity with Yayoi Kusama

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Entering Infinity with Yayoi Kusama

In the corner of the gallery stands an unassuming white cube. A panel on the front of the cube periodically yawns open, revealing an endless, wondrous, lamp-lit nighttime. And then the door closes, extinguishing the dream. Even in the dreary November cold, people wait hours to enter the cube and experience what’s inside; nearly every color of puffer coat is represented in the line huddled outside the building. This is Yayoi Kusama’s INFINITY MIRRORED ROOM—DANCING LIGHTS THAT FLEW UP TO THE UNIVERSE, the centerpiece of the ninety-year-old artist’s “EVERY DAY I PRAY FOR LOVE” (on view at David Zwirner’s West Twentieth Street gallery through December 14), which features all-new paintings, sculptures, and installations that build on her legacy as one of the world’s most daring and openhearted artists. Faces are everywhere in this show—peeking out from stalks of succulent-like sculptures, squiggling along the walls like schools of fish, hiding in the vivid biology of her paintings. And then, of course, there’s your own face, repeated over and over on the reflective walls of the infinity room, staring in awe, reeling from the bliss. A selection of images from the show appears below.