Yayoi Kusama, Avant-Garde Genius

Yayoi Kusama is one of Japan's greatest avant-garde artists. Born in the 1920s in Nagano, Kusama spent nearly two decades from her twenties to forties living in NYC and spearheading crazy art events in Central Park and Brooklyn. She's shared exhibits with Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenberg and represented Japan at the Venice Bienniale several times in throughout the 90s. The lady has a long history of mental illness,  though, having suffered from hallucinations and obsessive thoughts as a child, and now chooses to live in a mental hospital in Tokyo, right near her art studio where she continues to produce masterpieces epitomized by repetitive dots and spots (allegedly inspired by aforementioned childhood hallucinations) to this day.

Her latest exhibits open in Hong Kong and Korea this month. More pics after the jump.