The New York Botanical Garden (NYBG) announces its release of a new block of timed tickets beginning on June 24 for admission to KUSAMA: Cosmic Nature from August 3 through October 31, 2021. The acclaimed exhibition features work by internationally celebrated Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama, including four new sculptures and mirrored environments created especially for this presentation. The exhibition showcasing the artist’s lifelong fascination with the natural world is installed across the Botanical Garden’s landscape, in and around the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory, and in the LuEsther T. Mertz Library Building and includes seasonal horticultural displays. NYBG is the exclusive venue for KUSAMA: Cosmic Nature, which is on view through October 31, 2021. Advance, timed, limited-capacity tickets for the landmark presentation are required and are on sale at nybg.org/kusama.

The exterior of Kusama’s new Infinity Mirrored Room—Illusion Inside the Heart (2020) has been on view since the opening of the exhibition, reflecting the seasonality of NYBG’s landscape. Interior access will begin on August 3, with separate limited-capacity tickets that will also go on sale on June 24. The immersive experience responds to varying natural light through colored glass throughout the day and seasons.

KUSAMA: Cosmic Nature Catalogue

The hardbound, 176-page catalogue, KUSAMA: Cosmic Nature, published by Rizzoli Electa in association with The New York Botanical Garden features essays, little-known work by Yayoi Kusama, archival images, and installation photography. It will be available at NYBG Shop beginning June 15, 2021. Edited by the exhibition’s guest curator Mika Yoshitake and Joanna L. Groarke, Director of Public Engagement and Library Exhibitions Curator, NYBG, contributors include Barbara Ambrose, Director of Laboratory Research and Associate Curator of Plant Genomics, NYBG; Karen Daubmann, Vice President for Exhibitions and Audience Engagement, NYBG; Alex A. Jones, writer and independent scholar; Alexandra Munroe, Senior Curator, Asian Art, and Senior Advisor, Global Arts, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum; and Jenni Sorkin, Associate Professor, History of Art & Architecture, University of California, Santa Barbara. 

La Grande Dame by Veuve Clicquot Partnership

NYBG announces its partnership with Veuve Clicquot, the French champagne house with which Yayoi Kusama has previously collaborated. In September 2020, Veuve Clicquot unveiled the results of their latest collaboration—Kusama’s exceptional reinterpretation of the newly released La Grande Dame 2012 vintage champagne with her signature polka dot and floral motifs. The floral creation was reprised in My Heart That Blooms in The Darkness of The Night, a sculpture inspired by La Grande Dame champagne honoring Madame Clicquot, an industry visionary. Images of the collaboration are available here.

Following its presentation at NYBG’s annual Spring Gala on June 3, a large-scale version of My Heart That Blooms in The Darkness of The Night will be on view to diners in NYBG’s Hudson Garden Grill through the close of the exhibition on October 31. Veuve Clicquot’s La Grande Dame and Yellow Label champagne will be available for purchase.

“We are excited to offer special champagne and food pairings at the Hudson Garden Grill featuring Veuve Clicquot La Grande Dame as part of the champagne house’s collaboration with Yayoi Kusama,” said Nelson Siavichay, Chef de Cuisine. “The vintage pairs beautifully with our farm-to-table cuisine and NYBG’s current exhibition showcasing works by Kusama.”

About The New York Botanical Garden

Founded in 1891, The New York Botanical Garden is the most comprehensive botanical garden in the world and an integral part of the cultural fabric of New York City, anchored in the Bronx. Visitors come to the Garden to connect with nature for joy, beauty, and respite, and for renowned plant-based exhibitions, music and dance, and poetry and lectures. Innovative children’s education programs promote environmental sustainability and nutrition awareness, graduate programs educate the next generation of botanists, while engaging classes inspire adults to remain lifelong learners. The 250-acre verdant landscape—which includes a 50-acre, old-growth forest—and the landmark Enid A. Haupt Conservatory support living collections of more than one million plants. Unparalleled resources are also held in the LuEsther T. Mertz Library, the world’s most important botanical and horticultural library with 11 million archival items spanning ten centuries, and William and Lynda Steere Herbarium, the largest in the Western Hemisphere with 7.8 million plant and fungal specimens. Committed to protecting the planet’s biodiversity and natural resources, Garden scientists work on-site in cutting-edge molecular labs and in areas worldwide where biodiversity is most at risk.