Yayoi Kusama is one of Japan's foremost contemporary artists. She's known for her Instagramable "Infinity Rooms" — immersive installations that use mirrors, lights and reflective surfaces to create the illusion of endless space — as well as her large-scale polka dot sculptures. While her works often appear playful, behind them lies the story of a woman who has faced major social and mental health challenges. Around the age of 10, Yayoi Kusama began experiencing hallucinations, seeing dots and net patterns enveloping everything in her mind's eye. She has attributed these early visions to the psychological strain of growing up with an unloving mother, who forbade her from painting and tried to impose traditional expectations on her behavior. Although she continues to experience hallucinations, Kusama has learned to live with them and channel them into her art. "My artwork is an expression of my life, particularly of my mental disease," Kusama once told US arts publication Bomb Magazine. After attending the Kyoto School of Arts and Crafts, Kusama held her first exhibitions in her hometown of Matsumoto. She was unusually open about her mental health at a time when such topics were heavily stigmatized. "It was extraordinary that she addressed it so openly," said Stephan Diederich, curator of the Kusama retrospective at Cologne's Museum Ludwig, which is on show until August 2, 2026.