Yayoi Kusama, the Japanese art icon whose hypnotic polka dots, whimsical pumpkins and dazzling “Infinity Mirror Rooms” made her a global sensation, died Aug. 14 at a Tokyo hospital. She was 97.
But nearly 6,800 miles away, Kusama’s work lives on in some unexpected corners of New York City — where seeing it doesn’t require a museum ticket, an advance reservation or hours spent waiting in line.
One of the most striking examples is hiding in plain sight beneath Midtown Manhattan.
At Grand Central Madison, commuters pass every day by “A Message of Love, Directly from My Heart unto the Universe,” Kusama’s sprawling glass mosaic commissioned for the Long Island Rail Road terminal.
The permanent 2022 work sits along the Madison Concourse between East 46th and 47th streets, filling the passageway with bold colors, lines and fantastical forms. The work expands on Kusama’s “My Eternal Soul” series, which she began in 2009.
The MTA says the mosaic conveys themes of love, the universe and peace central to Kusama’s work — and that the artist hoped it would “bring joy” to people encountering it as they passed through the station.
On Thursday, just hours after news of Kusama’s death broke, The Post found commuters and visitors doing just that.
Sandrine Gold, a 51-year-old teacher from Port Washington, stopped and began snapping photos — without realizing she was looking at the work of one of the world’s most famous contemporary artists.
“I was just walking by in the subway and noticed this amazing art on the wall,” Gold told The Post. “I love how rich and inspiring the colors are.”
Gold, who teaches Spanish and French at the Long Island School for the Gifted and also leads an after-school art class, said the work immediately gave her ideas to take back to her students.
“The colors were really catching my attention and started to inspire me for my classes,” she said.
Her chance encounter captures something unusual about Kusama’s presence in New York: Some of her art can be stumbled upon entirely by accident.
That’s a sharp contrast with the frenzy surrounding Kusama’s blockbuster exhibitions.
Kusama’s “Infinity Mirror Rooms” became an international sensation, drawing huge crowds for the chance to step inside her mirrored, seemingly endless spaces.
Her 2013 David Zwirner exhibition in Chelsea featured “The Souls of Millions of Light Years Away,” one of the installations that helped propel her to an even wider popular audience.
But Kusama’s footprint in New York has extended beyond galleries and museums — and beyond Grand Central.
For years, one of her signature pumpkins also greeted residents at SKY, the massive 1,175-unit rental tower at 605 W. 42nd St.
The custom bronze “Pumpkin,” installed in 2016, sat in the building’s cobblestoned motor court, bringing Kusama’s unmistakable polka dots to the base of the glass-and-steel tower. The more than 2,600-pound sculpture is no longer at the property.
Kusama’s connection to New York stretches back nearly seven decades.
Born in Matsumoto, Japan, in 1929, she moved to New York in 1958 and became part of the city’s avant-garde art scene, developing her “Infinity Net” paintings while experimenting with sculpture, performance and installations. She returned to Japan in the 1970s.
Decades later, her work would return to New York on a vastly different scale — filling galleries with crowds and commanding millions of dollars in the international art market.
But for New Yorkers like Gold, Kusama’s legacy can still appear much more unexpectedly — simply on the way to catch a train.
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