In pictures: The dotty world of Japanese artist Yayoi KusamaByIan YoungsCulture reporterPublished4 minutes agoUsing bright colours, shapes, patterns and reflections, Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, who has died at the age of 97, was known for creating extraordinary immersive worlds that delighted millions of people around the globe.Image source, Getty ImagesKusama emerged as part of the pop art movement - and was among a select group of artists whose work became truly popular with a mass audience, attracting crowds to exhibitions from Tokyo to New York and London.Image source, Getty ImagesHer trademark polka dots covered entire galleries and giant sculptures, and she also used mirrors and lights to create the effect of shapes and patterns disappearing into infinity.Actress Julia Fox (below) was among those at the opening of her exhibition in Melbourne, Australia in 2024.Image source, Getty ImagesKusama said she saw hallucinations of dots and lights as a child, and used those visions in her art from the 1960s.Image source, Getty ImagesKusama made a major global breakthrough after representing Japan at the Venice Biennale in the 1990s. Image source, Getty ImagesShe is pictured inside one of her Infinity Mirror Rooms in Paris in 2001 above, and with fellow Japanese artist Yoko Ono in Sydney in 2000 below.Image source, Getty ImagesShe had exhibitions at institutions including the Museum of Modern Art in New York, Tate Modern in London and the National Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo.Image source, Getty ImagesVisitors themselves applied more than 800,000 polka dot stickers to a white room (and their own faces) at the Smithsonian Institute's Hirshhorn Museum in Washington DC in 2017.Image source, Getty ImagesKusama's 2012 retrospective at the Tate Modern was followed by an installation of her Infinity Mirror Rooms at the same venue from 2021, which drew huge audiences and was extended several times.Image source, Getty ImagesIn 2023, a giant figure of Kusama was installed to tower over Louis Vuitton's flagship store on the Champs-Élysées in Paris.Image source, ReutersHer giant figures, shapes and animals filled Manchester's Aviva Studios when the venue opened in 2023.Image source, ReutersFrom Manchester to Melbourne - her spots were also a hit in the Australian city two years ago.Image source, Getty ImagesShe had voluntarily lived in a psychiatric hospital for decades, and died in a Tokyo hospital earlier this month.Image source, Getty ImagesRelated topicsArtMore on this storyJapanese polka dot artist Yayoi Kusama dies aged 97Published3 hours ago