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 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.

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 trapped. in need of liberation. Here, she’s transformed to the point of vanishing.

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

Also here are a few of my Kusama-inspired photos in the hope they expand the Yayoi Kusama Universe, be it ever so slightly.

— August 2026 —