To the Miamian, October means convenience stores overstocked on candy, early Halloween decorators, and maybe a slight lowering of the usually sweltering temperatures. This year, fall brings a rare treat to the tropical city: an artist who continues to awe and delight, both in the market—fetching millions at auctions and several hundreds of thousands at fairs and galleries—and on social media, generating hours-long lines for a few precious, post-worthy minutes in her glistening mirrored environments. You guessed it—for the first time, the ICA Miami will host legendary artist Yayoi Kusama’s All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins (2016). True to its name and to the artist’s singular style, the installation is a step through the looking glass into a mirrored galaxy of Kusama’s own mind, taking form as an infinite field of spotted pumpkins.
All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins, a marriage of Kusama’s iconic gourd motif and her renowned infinity mirror rooms, was one of the first artworks of its kind following the seminal installation Mirror Room (Pumpkin) for the Japanese Pavilion at the 1993 Venice Biennial. Not just for seasoned art aficionados, this installation can serve as a crash course introduction to Kusama for the art world newcomer. What better way to understand the artist’s universe than physically walking into it? “Kusama's work has made art accessible in radical new ways,” says ICA Miami Artistic Director Alex Gartenfeld. “We are proud to present All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins, as this will be the first time one of Kusama's signature immersive installations can be viewed by the public in Miami.”
The work’s arrival in Miami is a testament to Kusama’s place in art history and the global reach her work has wrought. For those familiar with Kusama’s story and the rather infuriating under-recognition of her innovations in the 1950s and ‘60s, ICA’s endeavor to make All the Eternal Love I Have for the Pumpkins accessible to the public—through free access on Thursdays along with educational programming for students—helps ensure that the artist’s brilliance won’t be neglected in the future. You may want to get in line now.
