Lying in an endless field of blooming flowers. Wading through a pool teeming with rainbow koi fish. Sinking into a plush floor like it’s a black hole. These are only a few of the experiences offered at teamLab Planets Tokyo.

Since its 2018 launch in Japan, teamLab has curated immersive environments that abstract the boundaries between art and its audience. The art collective's museum encapsulates several large-scale artwork spaces, inviting visitors to participate in unique exercises such as creating a collaborative Pointillist artwork or pushing illuminated spheres to change their color. No matter the conceit, participation is what ultimately activates each artwork.

On January 22, 2025, teamLab Planets Tokyo will open its doors to an expansion that nearly doubles its total area. The Athletics Forest is one of the more ambitious additions, and comprises six separate areas for visitors to explore.

The Caterpillar House, for example, is composed of vibrant spheres that rotate at high speed, but once approached, they become easier to step on. Aerial Climbing similarly encourages physical engagement, featuring horizontal bars of varying colors upon which visitors can climb while suspended in the air.

“Humans perceive the world with their bodies and think with their bodies,” Toshiyuki Inoko, teamLab’s founder, explains in a statement. “We started Athletics Forest with the hopes to enhance three-dimensional and higher-dimensional thinking.”

The expansion also includes the Catching and Collecting Forest, a learning space inspired by the concept of Catch, Study, Release. Extinct animals roam the room’s towering walls, ready to be caught by visitors via a dedicated smartphone app. Once captured, the app provides information about the animal through a collection book and subsequently releases the animal back to the iridescent walls.

TeamLab Planets Tokyo has also incorporated a sketching lab, areas dedicated to collaborative art creation, and two art installations in its expansion. To learn more, visit the teamLab website.

Known for its immersive installations, teamLab Planets Tokyo has recently unveiled an expansion that nearly doubles its total area.

“Balance Stepping Stones in the Invisible World.”

“Beating Earth.”

“Aerial Climbing through a Flock of Colored Birds.”

“Autonomous Abstraction.”

“Sketch Waterfall Droplets.”

The expansion features several new large-scale artwork spaces, including the Athletics Forest and the Catching and Collecting Forest.

“Graffiti Nature.”

“Catching and Collecting Extinct Forest.”

“Existence in the Flow Creates Vortices.”

“Flutter of Butterflies from the Caterpillar House.”

teamLab Planets Tokyo specializes in immersive installations, offering rich and sensory visual experiences.

“Multi Jumping Universe.”

“Nursery Lamps in Spontaneous Order.”

“Rapidly Rotating Bouncing Spheres in the Caterpillar House.”

“Sliding through the Fruit Field.”

“Waterfall Droplets, Flowing Down a Slope.”

teamLab Planets: Website | Instagram

My Modern Met received permission to feature images by teamLab Planets.

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In January 2012, artist Nick Cave was invited to spend a month in Dakar, Senegal, to gain inspiration for a large-scale installation to be installed at the city's U.S. Embassy. This residency, part of the U.S. Department of State Art in Embassies (AIE) program, allowed him to create a stunning installation based on the cross-cultural dialogue he experienced with local artists.

Cave used his time in Senegal's capital to engage with local artists, finding inspiration in these encounters. This would translate to the final piece, a 20-by-25-foot bas-relief weighing approximately 500 pounds. It took Cave three months and the help of 10 assistants to create the piece, which is primarily made from pony beads and pipe cleaners. The artist also incorporated sequins, as well as found objects from the United States and Senegal.

Together, the materials form a vibrant web symbolizing unity. A true cross-cultural work, this piece was created by Cave in his Chicago studio and incorporated work by local Senegalese artists Seni M’Baye, Loman Pawlitschek, and Daouda N’Diaye on-site.

“For me, when, you know, people are experiencing the piece, I have to be open to what they see and how they respond to it and allow that to be another part of this sort of broad dialogue around an emotion,” the artist shares in a 2013 video produced by AIE. “It’s part of this sort of opportunity for people to intersect and have interesting conversation around ideas. It’s part of the magic.”

Cave's piece is just one part of the Department of State's extensive art program, which presents approximately 60 exhibitions per year and has helped create over 70 permanent art collections in over 200 diplomatic facilities in 189 countries.

In 2012, artist Nick Cave was invited to spend a month in Senegal as part of the U.S. Department of State Art in Embassies (AIE) program.

The resulting artwork, installed in the U.S. Embassy in Dakar in 2013, weighs approximately 500 pounds.

Primarily made from pony beads and pipe cleaners, it was inspired by his encounters with local artists.

Watch this short film to see how Cave's incredible bas-relief came to life.

Nick Cave: Instagram 

My Modern Met granted permission to feature photos by Jack Shainman Gallery.

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Artist Charles Pétillon is known for his monumental balloon installations, which have been staged around the world. Now, he's shifting gears and merging his balloon art and photography to create surreal imagery from carefully crafted sets. The result of this is Weightlessness, Pétillon's solo exhibition at Danysz Gallery in Paris.

Pétillon's white balloons give rise to ethereal scenes, whether rising up in a misty landscape or billowing out of Brutalist architecture. In some whimsical images, a figure appears, legs peeking out from the balloons. Almost appearing to carry the person away, the French artist's hybrid creature allows us to enter his creative world.

For the exhibition, Pétillon is also opening up the creative process. Audio and visual experiences, including the artist's personal narration and a behind-the-scenes video, give insight into what it takes to bring his vision to life. Danysz Gallery calls Weightlessness an exhibition where “imperfection unveils unexpected beauty while subtly questioning our world and its challenges, from ecology to humanity’s role, urbanization, and sensitive beauty.”

Running from February 8, 2025, to March 8, 2025, the show is a fascinating opportunity to see the magic that can occur when installation art and fine art photography come together. Scroll down to see an exclusive preview of the work on show.

Artist Charles Pétillon is known for his monumental balloon installations, which have been staged around the world.

In his new exhibition, Weightlessness, he's shifting gears to create surreal imagery from carefully crafted sets.

Exhibition Information:
Charles Pétillon
Weightlessness
February 8, 2025 – March 8, 2025
Danysz Gallery in Paris, France
78 Rue Amelot, 75011 Paris, France

Charles Pétillon: Website | Instagram

My Modern Met granted permission to feature photos by Danysz Gallery.

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“Light in the Forest,” 2020 (courtesy of the artist and Winfield Gallery).

For California-based artist Holly Lane, the picture frame is far from superfluous. Instead, the frame assumes an essential role, serving not just as a border around her paintings but also as an inseparable part of them.

Though evolving throughout her multi-decade career, Lane’s fascination with the frame began as an art undergraduate at San Jose State University in the mid-1980s. She often found herself questioning the relationship between an artwork and its frame, and why the latter was consistently designed to be inconspicuous. Lane’s solution was at once simple and radical: create a frame as grand as the painting it surrounds.

Since then, Lane’s practice has been defined by a symbiosis between picture and frame. Her intricate frames teem with rich ornamentation and organic forms, perfectly complementing her paintings chronicling the natural world and animal kingdom.

Twenty-five of Lane’s carved frame paintings are currently on view in an exhibition at New Museum Los Gatos (NUMU). Open until January 12, 2025, the exhibition titled Not Enough Time to Love the World explores the artist’s core interests, including mythology, climate change, and environmental sanctity, all while showcasing how she has reconceptualized the frame.

My Modern Met had the chance to speak with Holly Lane about her creative process, thematic underpinnings, and NUMU exhibition. Read on for our exclusive interview with the artist.

Holly Lane creating “Gentle Muse” (2010)

What originally sparked your fascination with the frame?

While an undergraduate in painting I began thinking about frames. I was reading philosopher Jacques Derrida’s analysis of how conceptual frames often subconsciously precondition our perception of what is at the center.

A factor I was considering at that time was if a painting had a frame at all, it was a thin line, serving as protection for the art, and as a conceptual dividing line. The frame was a demarcation line that indicated that all that was within was art—the frame itself, and all that was outside the frame was not art. A good frame was to be inconspicuous.

While pondering the nature of frames, I found some illuminated manuscripts in the San Jose State University library and saw how the scrolling borders visually commented on the text.  Sometimes the borders had naughty creatures spoofing the text, even mooning the text—that was my moment of epiphany. I realized that a frame could be many things: it could be a commentary, an informing context, and a conceptual or formal elaboration. It could also embody ancillary ideas, it could be a shelter, it could be an environment, it could be like a body that houses and expresses the mind, and many other rich permutations.

From that point I began to create pieces that fused frame and painting, with some pieces having doors that open and close over paintings to suggest contingency, potentiality, future, past, or cause and effect.

“Cottonwood Moon,” 2023 (Photo: Courtesy of the artist and Winfield Gallery)

Why does it feel significant to achieve a symbiosis between frame and painting?

By making a frame that is one with the work I hope to eliminate a sense of border, of outside and inside. In doing so, I seek to address two spatial modes of aesthetic perception.

To experience the space of a painting we project our minds into it and, because of this, I see the pictorial space as a mind space. On the other hand, the spatial qualities of sculpture exist in our own physical space—we walk around it, proportion our bodies to it—so in part, sculpture is apprehended or “seen” by the body. By fusing sculptural frames with pictorial images, I hope to address both these modes of human aesthetic perception.

Furthermore, I use architectural forms in the frame because architecture is a human construct that encodes our needs, intentions, and predilections. These architectural frames are a stand-in for the human mind, culture, and consciousness. By placing nature inside an architectural frame, I show nature as held within our minds. Climate change calls us to re-envision nature from one of utility to intimacy and even sanctity, so placing nature within sacred architecture reframes nature as a sacred place.

“Not Enough Time to Love the World,” 2022 (Photo: Courtesy of the artist and Winfield Gallery)

What is your process in creating your intricate frames?  

I have two simultaneous threads of visual ideas going on in my sketchbook, both for paintings and their frame body/extrapolation. This stage is fluid with interchanges, additions, and subtractions going on in my sketchbook.

When I decide on a frame body and the painting, I make full-size drawings on graph paper for the frame, keeping in mind the dialogue and inter-relations with the painting. I also take measurements off the precise full-scale drawings to get the proper amount of wood (primarily basswood) and to plan the carving.

After the carving, I create line drawings, value drawings, and color studies for the painting, modifying the painting if needed to be in conversation with the frame body.

“Wading Through Amber,” 2020 (Photo: Courtesy of the artist and Winfield Gallery)

“Companions, The Three Graces,” 2021 (Photo: Patrick Tregenza, courtesy of the artist and Winfield Gallery)

How do you decide which details to incorporate in your frames?   

I think about gravity, weight, proportion, balance, extension, expansion, implied movement, coherence, pattern rhythms, counter point, texture, smoothness, and shape rhyming, among other features, for the frame shapes and carving details. I usually incorporate natural forms with architectural forms, alluding to how the human-built world is entwined with the natural world.

“We Shall Rise,” 2024 (Photo: Courtesy of the artist and Winfield Gallery)

What was the experience in mounting the exhibition Not Enough Time to Love the World at NUMU?  

It took two years of steadily working with guest curator Helaine Glick, from proposal to opening reception. Helaine applied her many years of museum experience to shaping the proposal and working with my gallery, Winfield Gallery, of Carmel, CA, and New Museum of Los Gatos.

Once the proposal was accepted by NUMU, Helaine guided every detail. For instance, she took my artist’s statements and streamlined them for the wall text. She also coordinated with NUMU’s director of exhibitions and collections, Cristiano Colantoni, on the gorgeous installation and lighting he designed.

After the opening guest curator, Helaine, NUMU, and Winfield Gallery have supported every special event and ensuing press opportunity. It has been a wonderful experience.

Image from Holly Lane's “Not Enough Time to Love the World” exhibition (Photo: Rutvik Katkoriya)

Image from Holly Lane's “Not Enough Time to Love the World” exhibition (Photo: Rutvik Katkoriya)

How is the exhibition representative of your practice and multi-decade career?

The NUMU exhibition comprises 25 works selected from my last 14 years of creation, representing my latest frame of mind.

Earlier in my creative life, I sometimes included human figures in the landscape, rethinking myths that involve women—like Eve and Fortuna—from a women’s perspective, in an effort to show backstories. Unfortunately, we could not gather enough of these works from around the country for this exhibition.

I’m looking forward to revisiting Fortuna, the capricious ancient Roman goddess of fortune and luck. She enables me to indulge my sense of humor.

“Eudaimonia and the Four Pillars of the Sky,” 2010 (Photo: Courtesy of the artist)

What are some of your favorite artworks featured within the exhibition and why?

The classification of favorites is tricky. Picking a favorite artwork would be like asking a jill (a mother possum) which of her 10 joeys (baby possums) clinging to her back is her favorite.

That said, there are some works in this exhibition that currently cling especially tightly to my mind. That magnetism, however, is not due to a valuation or ranking on my part—it’s because they have aspects that I would like to develop in different ways in the future.

I feel that the bulbous vine-wrapped “vase” that supports Cottonwood Moon and the painting’s mesh of branches and leaves—which are organically logical, but at first appear to be a jumbled tangle—have more potential, both sculpturally and pictorially. In addition, I would like to achieve the height, delicacy, and use of space in Eudaimonia and the Four Pillars of the Sky in another pure sculpture.

These are just a few qualities I’d like to explore more in future works. When each work is completed, I sit with it, learn from it, allow it to guide me toward new potentials.  Being an artist is the most connected and expansive work I have ever been a part of. It is limitless.

Holly Lane: Website | Facebook
New Museum Los Gatos: Website | Instagram | Facebook

My Modern Met received permission to feature images from New Museum Los Gatos and Holly Lane. Interview has been edited for length and clarity.

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For the past two decades, British artist Ian Berry has been transforming discarded blue denim into striking installations, portraits, and more. To celebrate his incredible work, Istanbul's Kalyon Kültür is hosting Beyond Denim, an exhibition featuring a curated collection of Berry’s artworks from throughout his career.

The exhibition showcases Berry’s iconic Secret Garden installation, transforming an entire room into a lush garden with vines and a water feature, all created from recycled denim. The show also includes the artist’s denim portraits of legendary figures, and his remarkable Hotel California series. Plus, it offers an exclusive preview of a new collection of small-scale animal portraits.

Turkey is famous for its high-quality denim, making it the perfect place to showcase Berry’s work. His art highlights just how versatile and creative denim can be, breathing new life into the material in a sustainable way.

If you’re in Turkey, don’t miss the chance to visit the exhibition at Kalyon Kültür, running through February 14, 2025. If you can’t make it to Istanbul, you can still dive deeper into the artist's ever-growing portfolio of work by visiting his website and following Ian Berry on Instagram.

Istanbul's Kalyon Kültür's Beyond Denim exhibition showcases a curated collection of Ian Berry’s recycled denim artworks from throughout his career.

His art highlights just how versatile and creative denim can be, breathing new life into the material in a sustainable way.

Exhibition Information:
Ian Berry
Beyond Denim
November 30, 2024 – February 14, 2025
Kalyon Kültür in Istanbul, Turkey
Meşrutiyet District
Rumeli Street, Taş Konak 6B
34363 Şişli/İstanbul

Ian Berry: Website | Facebook | Instagram
Kalyon Kültür: Website | Facebook | Instagram | YouTube

My Modern Met granted permission to feature photos by Ian Berry.

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For years, artist Jon Foreman has spotlighted the organic shapes found in nature. In his breathtaking land art, Foreman takes colorful beach rocks, molded by thousands of years by the seaside, and creates geometric patterns with them. Although he has created countless circular, swirling shapes, Foreman recently decided to experiment with more rigid compositions, laying the rocks within invisible square frames. By doing this, it's as if the artist marries the natural with the manmade, creating optical illusions in the process.

The shapes of these pieces don’t take away from the mesmerizing effect that has long defined Foreman's pieces. If anything, it challenges the artist to make the pieces equally eye-catching within a limited, defined space—something he achieves with flying colors. One of his works sees him assorting rocks of five different shades by size, creating a pattern that evokes TV static. In another arrangement, Foreman seems to have created a window to a moonlit night sky with dark blue and grey rocks, dotted by white pebbles that double as stars.

While Foreman is best known for his patterns on the beach, he has further experimented by taking his practice inland. He has also been playing around with the colors of fall leaves and even building entire paths with his signature found beach rocks. With this, the artist continues to explore all the creative avenues land art can offer—a branch of art of which he has become one of the top creators in the world.

Perhaps most commendably, Foreman's pieces disappear in a matter of hours, days, or weeks. However, that doesn't stop him from devoting his days to his ephemeral art. His practice may be the biggest testament that some of the most beautiful things in the world are fleeting. To stay up to date with this master of land art, you can follow Jon Foreman on Instagram.

Artist Jon Foreman traded his signature swirling land art pieces for innovative square compositions.

By doing this, it's as if the artist married the natural with the manmade, creating optical illusions in the process.

The shape of these pieces doesn't take away the mesmerizing effect that has long defined Foreman's pieces.

If anything, it challenges the artist to make the pieces equally eye-catching within a limited, defined space—something he achieves with flying colors.

While Foreman is best known for his patterns on the beach, he has further experimented by taking his practice inland.

He has also been playing around with the colors of fall leaves and even building entire paths with his signature found beach rocks.

With this, the artist continues to explore all the creative avenues land art can offer—a branch of art of which he has become one of the top creators in the entire world.

Jon Foreman: Website | Facebook | Instagram

My Modern Met granted permission to feature photos by Jon Foreman.

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A post shared by Marco Barotti (@marcobarotti)

In nature, clams serve an essential function despite their plain appearance. While feeding, they filter pollutants through their bodies, improving water clarity by reducing sediment loads, turbidity, and excess nutrients. Clams, an interdisciplinary project by artist Marco Barotti, focuses on this indispensable role through a unique multisensory experience.

Originally created in 2019, Clams is a collection of kinetic sound sculptures resembling their eponymous creature. Each sculpture is constructed from recycled plastic, contains a speaker, and is placed upon a body of water. What distinguishes these clams from static sculptures is their capacity to transform data into sound and movement.

Nearby industry-standard sensors translate detected water quality into a dynamic soundscape full of microtonal shifts. As the water quality fluctuates, the sounds the clams produce do as well. The music emitted by the clams is generated through real-time water readings and also result in subtle, life-like opening and closing gestures from the sculptures.

This variability directly corresponds to the surrounding environment, and recalls the clam’s natural ability to purify pollutants in its ecosystem. It also creates an intimate link between the sculptures and the water upon which they float.

“Clams invites the audience to draw connections between media art, data sonification, and environmental sustainability,” Barotti writes about the project.

In addition to Clams, Barotti has created other kinetic artworks. Moss (2021), for example, analyzes air quality data from cities and reinterprets it into breathing patterns and evolving soundscapes. Fungi (2024), on the other hand, explores underground networks of fungi and accompanies the installation with a polyphonic soundscape.

Barotti describes his work as “tech ecosystem[s]” that “play with resemblances to animals and plants.” Whether depicting clams or moss, coral or fungi, it’s clear that Barotti’s work beautifully unites art, science, and technology.

To learn more about the artist, visit Marco Barotti’s website and follow him on Instagram.

Clams by Marco Barotti unites art, science, and technology by reinterpreting the clam’s natural function as a water purifier.

The kinetic sculptures convert real-time water quality data into sound and movement, creating dynamic and haunting soundscapes.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Marco Barotti (@marcobarotti)

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Marco Barotti (@marcobarotti)

Clams invites audiences to draw connections between environmental sustainability, media art, and data sonification.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Marco Barotti (@marcobarotti)

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Marco Barotti (@marcobarotti)

Marco Barotti: Website | Instagram

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Other than its mild weather and sprawling beaches, Florida is renowned for its coral reef, which stretches almost 350 miles from the Dry Tortugas to the St. Lucie inlet. As with many other natural wonders, Florida’s reef also faces significant threats from climate change, primarily due to warming ocean temperatures, pollution, and major bleaching events. A new initiative, however, seeks to address these environmental challenges through art.

The ReefLine, a non-profit organization dedicated to restoring Miami’s marine ecosystem, has tapped artists around the world to contribute to their 7-mile underwater public sculpture park off the coast of Miami Beach. Carlos Betancourt and Alberto Latorre are two such artists, and, during Miami Art Week in December 2024, they debuted Miami Reef Star on the Mid-Beach shoreline.

The large-scale installation consists of 46 3D-printed stars of varying shapes and sizes, each arranged to resemble one massive star when viewed from above. Inspired by the migration of starfish, the sculpture embodies what Betancourt and Latorre describe as the “symbiotic relationship between the ocean, land, and cosmos.”

“Nature and the environment have been part of many of our collaborative artworks,” Betancourt and Latorre tell My Modern Met. “We both grew up in the Caribbean, in Puerto Rico, where living and connecting with nature is a daily experience. Nature inspires constantly, and being surrounded by it is pure magic. We can't imagine not protecting it.”

The installation serves as a prototypical study for the two artists: in the coming years, Miami Reef Star will take to Miami’s waters, becoming part of the ReefLine’s underwater park. Once installed underwater, Miami Reef Star will encompass a diameter of 90 feet and will even be viewable from airplanes flying overhead.

Given the sheer scale of the ReefLine’s vision, the marine park will be constructed in several phases, with the completion of Phase I anticipated in late-spring 2025.

“Currently, Phase I is taking place, with many prototypes [being] fabricated,” Betancourt and Latorre explain.

Beyond Miami Reef Star, the ReefLine park will incorporate several environmentally functional artworks, all intended to act as hybrid coral reefs. Other sculptures include Leandro Erlich’s Concrete Coral, a site-specific traffic jam that features life-size concrete car sculptures. Another work created by Shohei Shigematsu from OMA New York will reimagine a staircase into an “underwater folly reminiscent of marine life,” according to a statement.

“The ReefLine is a dream team of professionals who are experts [in] their fields,” Betancourt and Latorre say of their collaboration with ReefLine. “They are highly dedicated and committed individuals and in love with nature, especially the ocean.”

For Betancourt and Latorre, this opportunity not only demonstrates their environmental engagement but offers a moment of “magic” and “mystery.”

“Art can open up all kinds of possibilities,” the pair say. “This sculptural art hybrid reef will continue to change and evolve as nature [takes] over, even long after we are gone.”

You can follow along with their initiative via the ReefLine website and Instagram. To explore more of their work, visit Betancourt’s and Latorre’s websites.

The non-profit organization ReefLine has tapped artists to create environmentally functional installations for a new underwater park in Miami.

Miami Reef Star by Carlos Betancourt and Alberto Latorre is one such installation, and is inspired by the migration of starfish.

The 3D-printed star structures will be installed underwater in the next few years and will function as hybrid coral reefs.

Once installed, Miami Reef Star will encompass a diameter of 90 feet and will even be viewable from airplanes flying overhead.

Carlos Betancourt: Website | Instagram
Alberto Latorre: Website | Instagram
The ReefLine: Website | Instagram

My Modern Met granted permission to feature images from Carlos Betancourt and Alberto Latorre.

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JR. “Projet Pont-Neuf (collage préparatoire).” Collage, 2024. Paper cutout on paper. 10 x 16⅛ in. Atelier JR. (Photo: Courtesy Atelier JR © 2024 JR)

About 40 year ago, Paris' Pont Neuf was transformed by creative couple Christo and Jeanne-Claude for their project Pont Neuf Wrapped–a landmark moment in the history of contemporary arts. The bridge, which has witnessed many major events in the French capital, became the center of attention. To honor the legacy of these artists, JR—an equally sizable figure— will try his hand at turning the bridge into an installation for his Project Pont-Neuf.

In 1985, Christo and Jeanne Claude used 450,000 square feet of golden fabric, fastened around the structure with 8 miles of rope and 12 tons of steel cables to turn the bridge into a shimmering vision that art-loving Parisians reminisce about to this day. True to his vision, JR will instead transform Pont Neuf into a cave. These temporary large rock formations will connect the right and left banks for two weeks.

“I am very inspired by the artistic vision of Christo and Jeanne-Claude and I share their idea that the mission of art is to make the public think,” JR said via a statement. “The debate that a monumental project in public space can arouse a value equal to its artistic achievement. Art is a transformation, and a way of renewing the way we look at the world around us. In forming the dream of Projet Pont-Neuf, this is what I want to make possible from Paris.”

The project will be created in collaboration with the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation, and much like the creation that inspired it, the piece was designed to be admired both during the day and the night. “As the Seine becomes swimmable again and nature reclaims its place in the urban landscape, Projet Pont-Neuf will juxtapose the raw and untamed with the refined elegance of Paris,” says the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation.

Parisians and tourists will get to marvel at Project Pont-Neuf from September 22 to October 5, 2025, as it aims to be just as historic as Christo and Jeanne-Claude's efforts. “It is impressive to see to what extent Paris has strengthened its commitment to public art over the last 40 years, as we had already been able to measure during of the Arc de Triomphe, Wrapped,” states the foundation. “Knowing JR's dedication to public art, he is an artist ideal for this tribute to Christo and Jeanne-Claude, and I would like to thank Paris for being this bold, leading city in terms of culture.”

In a tribute to Christo and Jeanne-Claude, JR will transform Paris' Pont Neuf into a cave in 2025.

JR. “Projet Pont-Neuf”
Edition 2024.  Limited edition of 50 numbered and signed copies. Color lithograph produced on Marinoni printing press, hand-made collage, and charcoal. 25.5 x 41 cm (10 x 16⅛ in). Atelier JR.
(Photo: Courtesy Atelier JR © 2024 JR)

The project is inspired by Pont Neuf Wrapped, in which the creative couple wrapped the oldest bridge in Paris with thousands of square miles of golden fabric.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude. “The Pont Neuf Wrapped,” Paris, 1975-85. (Photo: Wolfgang Volz © 1985 Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation)

“I am very inspired by the artistic vision of Christo and Jeanne-Claude and I share their idea that the mission of art is to make the public think,” JR said via a statement.

Christo. “The Pont Neuf Wrapped (Project for Paris)” Collage, 1984. Pencil, wax crayon, enamel paint. (Photograph by Wolfgang Volz, and masking tape. 14 x 22 in. Private collection. Photo: Archive © 1984 Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation)

The project will be created in collaboration with the Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude. “The Pont Neuf Wrapped,” Paris, 1975-85. (Photo: Wolfgang Volz © 1985 Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation)

And much like the creation that inspired it, the piece was designed to be admired both during the day and the night.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude. “The Pont Neuf Wrapped,” Paris, 1975-85. (Photo: Wolfgang Volz © 1985 Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation)

“Knowing JR's dedication to public art, he is an artist ideal for this tribute to Christo and Jeanne-Claude, and I would like to thank Paris for being this bold, leading city in terms of culture.”

Christo and Jeanne-Claude. “The Pont Neuf Wrapped,” Paris, 1975-85. (Photo: Wolfgang Volz © 1985 Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation)

Parisians and tourists will get to marvel at Project Pont-Neuf from September 22 to October 5, 2025.

Christo and Jeanne-Claude at The Pont Neuf Wrapped. Paris, 1985. (Photo: Wolfgang Volz © 1985 Christo and Jeanne-Claude Foundation)

Exhibition Information:
JR
Projet Pont-Neuf
September 22–October 5, 2025
Pont Neuf, Paris

JR: Website | Instagram

Source: The Pont Neuf Wrapped: 40th Anniversary

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READ: JR To Pay Tribute to Christo and Jeanne-Claude by Transforming Paris’ Pont Neuf

Installation view of Yayoi Kusama’s “The Hope of the Polka Dots Buried in Infinity Will Eternally Cover the Universe” 2019. Collection of the artist
(Photo: Sean Fennessy)

Fans of Yayoi Kusama will want to book their ticket to Australia, as the National Gallery Victoria (NGV) International has opened the country's largest retrospective exhibition of the renowned artist. Yayoi Kusama is a blockbuster exhibition that spans the Japanese artist's eight-decade-long practice. From public artwork and paintings to fashion and immersive installations, the exhibit hosts over 200 artworks.

As one of the most comprehensive exhibitions to cover Kusama's illustrious career, NGV's display draws from the artist’s personal collection, private collections, and premier institutions across Japan, Southeast Asia, and Australia. In addition to her signature pumpkins, polka dots, and Infinity Rooms, there is plenty for art lovers to enjoy. Featuring painting, sculpture, collage, fashion, video, and installations, the exhibition reveals the astonishing breadth of Kusama’s multidisciplinary practice.

“There are few artists working today with the global presence of Yayoi Kusama,” shares NGV director Tony Ellwood, “This world-premiere NGV-exclusive exhibition allows local audiences and visitors alike the chance to experience Kusama’s practice in deeper and more profound ways than ever before. We are indebted to Kusama for allowing us to share her worldview and creativity with Australian audiences.”

Moving in chronological order, Yayoi Kusama leads visitors on a journey through her life and career. Starting with her early paintings and drawings, created while still living in her hometown of Matsumoto, it then follows her as she moved to the United States in 1957. Her avant-garde practice in the late 1950s and 1960s is represented by archival ephemera, studio photographs, and personal correspondence. The second half of the exhibition features Kusama’s iconic pumpkin-inspired works, large-scale paintings, and sculptures made over the past four decades, including multiple room installations.

Kusama's work also spills outside the boundaries of the museum's galleries. These experiences include 60 plane trees wrapped in a pink-and-white polka-dot design just outside the museum. The artwork, Ascension of Polka Dots, was developed by Kusama specifically for Melbourne and is one of several free artworks that the public can enjoy. Other pieces and charge-free experiences include a site-specific artwork created for NGV International’s waterwall, polka-dotted inflatables in the Great Hall, and a children’s exhibition.

Dancing Pumpkin, now part of the NGV collection, is another free opportunity for visitors. The five-meter bronze pumpkin sculpture towers over the museum's Federation Court, with 11 sprawling legs that fill the space. Prior to the NGV installation, only two editions of the sculpture, one of Kusama’s largest and most ambitious imaginings of the pumpkin to date, have ever been shown.

Yayoi Kusama is currently on view at the NGV International in Melbourne until April 21, 2025.

NGV International is hosting one of the most comprehensive exhibitions to cover Kusama's illustrious career.

Photo: Sean Fennessy

From public artwork to immersive installations, the exhibit hosts over 200 artworks and covers Kusama's career in chronological order.

Installation view of “The Spirit of the Pumpkins Descended to the Heavens” 2017 (Photo: Sean Fennessy)

Photo: Sean Fennessy

Installation view of “Invisible Life,” 2000/2024 (Photo: Sean Fennessy)

Featuring painting, sculpture, collage, fashion, video, and installations, the exhibition reveals the astonishing breadth of Kusama’s multidisciplinary practice.

Installation view of the “Orgy Dress” 2002 (Photo: Kate Shanasy)

Installation view of Yayoi Kusama’s “Aggregation: One Thousand Boats Show” (Photo: Kate Shanasy)

Photo: Danielle Castano

Photo: Danielle Castano

The exhibition includes Kusama’s iconic pumpkin-inspired works, large-scale paintings, and sculptures made over the past four decades, including multiple room installations.

Installation view of “Chandelier of grief” 2016/2018 (Photo: Sean Fennessy)

Photo: Danielle Castano

Photo: Danielle Castano

Yayoi Kusama’s “Infinity Mirrored Room–My Heart is Filled to the Brim with Sparkling Light,” 2024 (Photo: Sean Fennessy)

Kusama's work also spills outside the boundaries of the museum's galleries, including 60 polka-dot-wrapped trees outside the gallery.

Yayoi Kusama’s Ascension of Polka Dots on the Trees, 2002/2024, on display along St Kilda Road, Melbourne (Photo: Sean Fennessy)

The exhibition also includes a site-specific artwork created for NGV International’s waterwall and the enormous Dancing Pumpkin installed in the museum.

Yayoi Kusama’s “Dancing Pumpkin” 2020. Purchased with funds donated by Loti & Victor Smorgon Fund, 2024 (Photo: Sean Fennessy)

Yayoi Kusama’s “Narcissus Garden,” 1966/2024 and “Untitled,” 2024 (Photo: Sean Fennessy)

Yayoi Kusama will remain on view at NGV International until April 21, 2025.

Photo: Danielle Castano

Installation view of “With all my love for the tulips, I pray forever” 2013 (Photo: Sean Fennessy)

Photo: Danielle Castano

Photo: Danielle Castano

Exhibition information:
Yayoi Kusama
December 15, 2024–April 21, 2025
National Gallery Victoria in Melbourne, Australia
180 St Kilda Rd, Melbourne

NGV Melbourne: Website | Instagram | Facebook

All images © Yayoi Kusama. My Modern Met granted permission to feature photos by NGV Melbourne.

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READ: Australia Hosts Comprehensive Exhibition Honoring Yayoi Kusama’s Career