Yayoi Kusama installation coming to Toledo Museum of Art
Hudson Gallery exhibit features paintings of Rome, Berlin.
By Roberta Gedert / The Blade
Tue, 01 Oct 2019 19:44:50 GMT
The Toledo-area community gets a chance to check out a large-scale installation by a 90-year-old Japanese artist known for her interactive rooms that use lights and mirrors to give viewers a sense of infinite space.
Pre-sale tickets go on sale in November for Yayoi Kusama: Fireflies on the Water, which will be installed in the Toledo Museum of Art’s Canaday Gallery from Dec. 14 through April 26, 2020.
Yayoi Kusama has created more than 20 large-scale installations using infinity mirrors in her seven-decade career. Her contemporary work plays off the idea of virtual reality through her artistic study of infinite space. A multi-media installation of her work was shown at the Cleveland Museum of Art in 2018.
In her earlier years, after moving to New York City in the 1950s, Kusama used her own body to activate her artistic spaces. She was also known for using art to protest the Vietnam War. As a person who endured hallucinations throughout her life, Kusama played off those mental health issues in her work as well.
She moved back to Japan in the 1970s and was largely forgotten as an artist, but a New York retrospective of her work in 1989 and a 1993 solo exhibition at the Venice Biennale in Italy propelled her back into the spotlight.
She enjoyed a retrospective of her work in 2012 that included an installation at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York.
Kusama was named one of Time Magazine’s “100 Most Influential People” in 2016. The Yayoi Kusama Museum opened in Tokyo in 2017.
Those who get tickets to the Toledo show will be permitted to spend one minute inside the installation. Member tickets are free; non-members will pay $5 per ticket.
For more information, go to toledomuseum.org.
■ A multi-media exhibition at Lourdes University is showcasing the work of the Toledo Federation of Art Societies through Oct. 11.
The Tradition Continues is in the university’s Canticle Center Gallery in Sylvania, and is open for public view from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Mondays through Fridays.
The show celebrates Toledo area artists and the society’s 100-year existence, includes work that dates back to 1949, and has pieces by such well known artists as Harvey Littleton and Charles Lakofsky, as well as current artists.
The exhibition is being touted as one for both artists and art history buffs. A reception is from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m., Friday in the gallery.
The gallery is also hosting an Alumni Art Exhibition for alums in all departments from Oct. 14 through Nov. 15.
For more information, go to tfas100.org.
■ Downtown Fremont Inc. is hosting an art and agricultural festival this weekend.
The Crop Circle Art & Music Festival and Farmers Market will be from 6 to 9 p.m., Friday, and from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., Saturday, and will include glassblowing, yarn bombing, caricature drawing, and chalk artistry by Toledo-area artists Eamon King, Paul Otermat, Michelle Atkinson, Isaac Klunk, and Caroline Jardine.
The event will also include musical entertainment, art walks, kids crafts, and a Farmers Market on Saturday.
For more information, go to downtownfremontohio.org or the Downtown Fremont Facebook page.
■ The show Tale of Two Cities / Rome, Berlin, featuring artists Eve Mansdorf and Tim Kennedy, opens Friday at the Hudson Gallery, 5645 Main St., Sylvania.
The exhibition focuses on smaller scale oil paintings during artistic studies in Rome and Berlin by the wife and husband duo.
The show includes an opening reception from 6 to 8 p.m., Friday, as part of downtown Sylvania’s Red Bird Arts Walk.
For more information, go to hudsongallery.net or sylvaniaarts.org.
■ The Bowling Green State University galleries are hosting an exhibition of the work of 10 artists, at the Four Corners Center, 130 S. Main St.
The Winner’s Circle will be on display through Oct. 25. An opening reception is being offered to the public from 4 to 6 p.m., Friday. The show includes work from award-winning artists from the 12th annual Northwest Ohio Community Art Show hosted by BGSU over the summer.
For more information, go to bgsu.edu/arts-and-sciences/school-of-art/events.
■ The Arts Commission of Greater Toledo has announced the opening of its Hot Glass Exhibition & Gala Auction on Monday in the lobby of the 300 Madison Building in downtown Toledo.
The show is open to the public through Nov. 7. The gala auction for the event will be Nov. 8.
For more information, go to the Arts Commission Facebook page or theartscommission.org.
Yayoi Kusama's 'Fireflies on the Water' will be installed at the Toledo Museum of Art from Dec. 14 through April 26, 2020.
'Saturn' by Eve Mansdorf is a painting featured in a duo-exhibition that opens Friday at Hudson Gallery in Sylvania.
'Sanssouci' by Tim Kennedy is part of an exhibition at Hudson Gallery in Sylvania that includes artwork by Kennedy and his wife, Eve Mansdorf.