Yayoi Kusama Museum new exhibit unveils a ‘ladder to heaven’
"Life" is exhibited in the lobby of Tokyo’s Yayoi Kusama Museum. | © YAYOI KUSAMA
Oct 9, 2026
The first exhibition at the Yayoi Kusama Museum to open since the artist’s death in August begins with an installation titled “Life” in the museum’s first-floor lobby.
The allusion to mortality continues upward, with the fourth floor devoted to a single light installation, “Longing for Heaven.” The exhibition ends with a rooftop installation titled “Ladder to Heaven.”
The show’s title, too, sounds prophetic: “The Light Spreads Out, and Glittering Things Start Appearing All Around Me,” a direct quote from the artist. The museum’s curators say this was not deliberate, as the exhibition is refreshed twice a year and decisions were made months ago. Still, it’s hard not to see the exhibition, which opened Oct. 8, as a possible message from the afterlife.
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