Yayoi Kusama has brought such joy, beauty and whimsy to the world. She passed away on August 14, 2026. The news of her passing arrived as it always does, in the morning’s reading, the New York Times. She was 97.

May her work continue to delight and inspire.

I share here what little I have to share of her work, but also something of how her obsessions leak into my work: infinity, iteration, quantum-level abstraction, sharing some of my work too.

For years, I’ve treasured my photo of Yayoi Kusama’s Statue of Venus Obliterated by Infinity Nets. This work once filled a wall at the Memorial Art Gallery (MAG) of the University of Rochester. It’s a life-size, partially robed statue of Venus that is both covered and against a monochromatic field of red and pink flecks—a goddess produced. Here, transforming her to the point of vanishing.

I don’t believe I ever printed my rendering of her Venus, or her work from New York Botanical Garden that I share here from 2021. These include her lushly painted flowers, and their reflections in water, in and around the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory’s water gardens. Her work was elsewhere as well, including an infinity room, which of course, we entered, stood and photographed.

— August 2026 —