The gallery has announced the first new exhibition of 2018 will focus on Yayoi Kusama’s small pumpkin paintings. 

On display from the 1st March, this new exhibition of the artist’s work will concentrate on her smallscale pumpkin paintings and is the first time that this small body of work will be displayed together in the UK.

The Japanese artist first experimented with her pumpkin works in the 1940s while studying Nihonga – a traditional form of Japanese painting – at the Kyoto School of Arts and Crafts. As one of her most loved and iconic motifs, the pumpkins are the visual embodiment of her childhood as well as her present psychological state.

Talking about the exhibition Omer Tiroche said: “I am thrilled to be able to present this collection of intimately sized works all together in one space. For Kusama, the pumpkin itself has so much autobiographical significance, relating to her youth when her family would survive primarily off pumpkin dishes. At the same time, though, when you examine the paintings up close you can see that they are comprised of an amalgamation of two motifs that she has revisited throughout her career: the obsession, dots and infinity nets. These small objects are so individually beautiful and we are very excited to be able to offer them for sale.”

At the same time as this exhibition, the Omer Tiroche Gallery will also display a curated selection of collages by the artist at the Armory Show in New York between 7th -11th March. Kusama worked on this series between 1980 and 1981, and made them in homage to her dear friend and lover Joseph Cornell.

Yayoi Kusama: Small Pumpkin Paintings will be on display at the Omer Trioche Gallery from the 1st March until the 1st June.