City Gallery extends opening hours for final week

MEDIA RELEASE 27 January 2009

Final opportunity to enter Kusama’s dizzying world

City Gallery extends opening hours for final week

Time is running out to visit the art exhibition that everyone is talking about –Yayoi Kusama: Mirrored Years at City Gallery Wellington.

Almost 80,000 people have already visited the Kusama exhibition, and with less than two weeks left to run City Gallery will be extending its opening hours for the final week. From Monday 1 February to Friday 5 February the Gallery will be opening its doors until 7pm, to enable as many visitors as possible to see the show before it closes on 7 February,

Gallery Director Paula Savage said, “Visitors have travelled from all around New Zealand and internationally to see this unique exhibition. Kusama’ssuccess shows the engagement that Wellingtonians have with City Gallery, and continues our history of bringing the work of major international artists to New Zealand for the first time.”

The exhibition has been immensely popular with a wide range of audiences, attracting new visitors including many of whom have never visited an art gallery before. “The exhibition’s appeal is universal.” says Ms Savage. “The large-scale site specific installations Dots Obsession Day and Dots Obsession Night were created especially for City Gallery Wellington by artist Yayoi Kusama. Along with the public artwork Dots for Love and Peace on the Gallery’s façade, Kusama has created something unique for Wellington. This artwork continues to amaze and captivate all who pass by. Kusama’s signature dots will be sorely missed at the close of the exhibition.”

Mirrored Years allows New Zealanders the rare opportunity to experience the strange and dizzying world of this avant-garde artist and her trademark polka dots. A sculptor, painter, film producer and fashion designer, Kusama exhibited with Andy Warhol in 1960s New York and vied with him for position of the most publicised artist of the era. Renowned for her obsession with repetitive patterns and forms, Kusama’s exhilarating room-sized mirrored installations allow a breathtaking experience of infinity and are utterly unlike anything else the viewer will experience in the world of art.

Yayoi Kusama: Mirrored Years is a partnership between Museum Boijmanns van Beuningen, Rotterdam, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney and City Gallery Wellington. It is curated by Jaap Guldemond (Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen), Franck Gautherot, Kim Seungduk (Le Consortium, Dijon), with additional works selected for Australasia by Judith Blackall, Director of Artistic Programmes, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney and Paula Savage Director, City Gallery Wellington.

Principal Sponsor: Yayoi Kusama: Mirrored Years 27 September, 2009 - 7 February, 2010 City Gallery Wellington, Civic Square, ph: 04 801 3021 citygallery@wmt.org.nz Admission $10/$8

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