The Art Gallery of Ontario announces extended hours for sold-out Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors

Demand for Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors at the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) has been unprecedented. With over 150,000 advance tickets booked, it’s no wonder the exhibition has been heralded by Maclean’s as Toronto’s “hottest ticket.” Before the exhibition closes, the AGO is giving art fans even more chances to see this spring’s highly celebrated exhibition. The Gallery is extending hours during the final two weekends (Thurs.-Sat.) of the exhibition, staying open until midnight on May 17, 18, 19, 24, 25, and 26. Organized by the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, the AGO is the only Canadian stop on the exhibition’s six-city tour and closes May 27, 2018.

All advance tickets for the exhibition have been booked and the daily rush ticket line is now the only way to purchase tickets for Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors. Rush tickets go on sale Tuesday to Sunday at 10 a.m. at the AGO box office in person only. On days when the exhibition will be open until midnight, the added tickets will be sold in the morning rush line and the last entry to the exhibition will be at 10 p.m.

Rush line tickets are $21.50 for post-secondary students and youth ages 17 and under, $26.50 for seniors and $30 for adults and are available in person only at the AGO box office, opening Tuesday through Sunday at 10 a.m. There is a maximum of two tickets for purchase per transaction. Children five and under receive free admission, but must be counted within the two ticket per purchase allotment.

“We are thrilled to be able to offer a late-night viewing experience that will allow even more people to see Kusama’s legendary immersive work,” said Stephan Jost, the AGO’s Michael and Sonja Koerner Director and CEO. “Yayoi Kusama is one of the most important contemporary artists of our time. It’s wonderful to see the public embrace this incredible exhibition.”

The total number of rush tickets available each morning will vary. Interested ticket-buyers are encouraged to follow @agotoronto and #AGOrush for updates. Every afternoon the AGO will announce the expected number of rush tickets available for the next day.

Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors has made AGO history, attracting tens of thousands of interested ticket-buyers since the first block of tickets went on sale in December 2017. The last booking window on March 27 drew over 70,000 users to the online queue at its peak. “Toronto can’t get enough of Infinity Mirrors at the AGO,” wrote blogTO.

For more information about Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors, please see visit AGO.ca.

Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors is organized by the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC.

The AGO is grateful for support from:

Lead Sponsor:
RBC

Supporting Sponsors:   
Shiseido Canada
Diet Coke     

Generous supporters:   
Emmanuelle Gattuso & Allan Slaight
Hal Jackman Foundation         

With assistance from:    
Michael Cooper & Krystal Koo                                       
Andrew & Andrea Federer                                     
Maxine Granovsky Gluskin & Ira Gluskin 
The Jay and Barbara Hennick Family Foundation 
Japan Foundation
Jonas & Lynda Prince
The Schulich Foundation 
Jay Smith & Laura Rapp                       

Funding provided by the Government of Ontario                      

Promotional Partner:      
Japan National Tourism Organization

Supported by:                
Canada Council for the Arts

Organizing Partner:
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Kusama was born in Matsumoto, Nagano, and works at her studio in Tokyo. She studied traditional Nihonga (Japanese-style) painting in Kyoto and moved to New York City in 1958. There, she was active in avant-garde circles during the formative years of pop art and minimalism, exhibiting her work alongside such artists as Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg and Allan Kaprow—figures who have cited Kusama as influential to the development of assemblage, environmental art and performative practices. Kusama exhibited widely in Italy, Germany and the Netherlands in the mid-’60s, participating in exhibitions with artists associated with Nul, Zero and the New Tendency in Europe, where she began developing her interest in the optics and interactive elements of mirrors, electric lights, sound and kinetics. Kusama’s fame grew in the late 1960s through her radical antiwar happenings, which espoused nudity and polka dots in the streets of New York. Because of ongoing struggles with her health, Kusama returned to Japan in 1973, where she has since resided. In recent years, Kusama has achieved celebrity status as well as tremendous critical respect.

ABOUT THE ART GALLERY OF ONTARIO

Located in Toronto, Canada’s largest city of 5.9 million, the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO) is one of the largest art museums in North America. The AGO’s collection of close to 95,000 works ranges from cutting-edge contemporary art such as Untilled by Pierre Huyghe to European masterpieces such as Peter Paul Rubens’s The Massacre of The Innocents; from the vast collection by the Group of Seven to works by established and emerging Indigenous Canadian artists; with a photography collection that tracks the impact of the medium with deep holdings of works by artists such as Garry Winogrand and Diane Arbus; and with focused collections in Gothic boxwood miniatures and Western and Central African art. Drawing on this collection—as well as collaborations with museums around the world—the AGO presents wide-ranging exhibitions and programs, taking special care to showcase diverse and underrepresented artists. A major expansion designed by Frank Gehry in 2008 with lead support from the family of Ken Thomson makes the AGO a highly-photographed architectural landmark. Visit ago.ca and follow @AGOToronto to learn more.

Feb. 17 – May 6, 2018:             Mitchell/Riopelle: Nothing in Moderation

March 3 – Mary 27, 2018:         Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors  

June 16 – Aug. 12, 2018:          Tunirrusiangit: Kenojuak Ashevak and Tim Pitsiulak

July 12 – Oct. 21, 2018:            Rebecca Belmore: Facing the Monumental

Sept. 2018 – Jan. 2019:            Anthropocene

The Art Gallery of Ontario is funded in part by the Ontario Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport. Additional operating support is received from the City of Toronto, the Canada Council for the Arts and generous contributions from AGO members, donors and private-sector partners.