Roslyn Oxley9 Gallery is excited to present its third solo exhibition of work by renowned Japanese artist, Yayoi Kusama. An artist of major international standing, Kusama has pursued themes of infinity through the accumulation of form since the 1950s. This exhibition will consist of a major sculptural installation,Tender are the Stairs to Heaven, and a series of monochrome infinity net and dot paintings.

Tender are the Stairs to Heaven is a floor to ceiling ladder made of fibre optic cables, which appears to rise from an infinite distance below the floor and continue its assent into perpetuity—continually chasing the spectre of infinity. The predominately white, metallic silver and black paintings incorporate optical intensity in expanding and contracting fields of obsessively repeated pattern, obliterating the subject. Kusama has pursued these themes since her earliest works, representations of visions which have beset her since childhood.

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Kusama was born in in 1929 and moved to New York in 1958 where she was a pioneering member of the postwar avant-garde. While in New York, Kusama had close associations with Joseph Cornell and Donald Judd as well as Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko and Carolee Schneemann. Kusama has twice been Japan’s representative at the Venice Biennale (1966 and 1993). In 2006 she was awarded the 18th annual Praemium Imperiale award for painting. Kusama has been the subject of many major international museum exhibitions, including, Yayoi Kusama, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo (touring Japan), 2004-2005; Kusamatrix, Mori Museum of Art, Tokyo, 2004; Yayoi Kusama, Le Consortium, Contemporary Art Center, Dijon (touring France, Denmark, Korea), 2001-2002; Love Forever: Yayoi Kusama 1958-1969, Museum of Modern Art, New York, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Walker Art Center and Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, 1998-99. She exhibited a major outdoor installation in the Singapore Biennial in 2006. Her work is held in numerous major international museums collections including the National Gallery, Washington, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, the Neuenational Galerie, Berlin, the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane and most major museums in Japan. Australian audiences have seen Kusama’s work in the 2000 Biennale of Sydney and the 2002 Asia Pacific Triennial.