I’ve really been loving these artist bio graphic novels from Laurence King Publishing, and the Yayoi Kusama edition is no exception.

This illustrated bio of Kusama’s life and work is simply lovely, perfect for both ardent Kusama fans and the Kusama-curious.

Her story is charmingly rendered in the text and the art is terrific, evocative of Kusama’s aesthetic while not simply mimicking her work.

My only familiarity with this artist's work was from two picture book biographies that I recently read. The books for small children refer to Kusama's avant-garde art in age-appropriate ways, emphasizing the infinity dots and the pumpkins instead of phallic symbols and nude bodies, so I was not prepared for the level of sexual imagery and detail that would appear in this adult graphic novel biography.

I might not have read it if I had known, but aside from that, I greatly enjoyed this book. It is well-designed and informative, and I enjoyed learning more about Kusama's background, frustrated relationship with her parents, and mental health issues, which the books for younger readers glossed over. This book is beautifully designed, with vibrant art that evokes her style while still remaining unique, and even though I visually skimmed past the nudity, I pored over other pages, noticing all the vivid details and the interplay between different colors. This is a beautiful, artistic book, and the presentation suits the subject matter.

I would highly recommend this to fans of Kusama's art, and it is also a great introduction to her life and work for people who are nor familiar with her. However, people who share my preference for avoiding nude art should know that this book includes a lot of it. Also, another significant trigger warning is that (SPOILER_WARNING in an early scene from the artist's childhood, she sees her father in bed with another woman and is traumatized by this. The implication is that her later phobias about sexuality and preoccupation with it in her art stemmed from this horrifying experience. The scene that she beholds is illustrated vaguely, with no sex organs visible, but is still drawn to be disturbing. END_SPOILER)

This is an interesting, informative book, and I am glad that I read it, but it definitely falls outside of my usual content preferences. I was able to visually skim past parts, and didn't feel particularly uncomfortable, but I know that I would have had a very different experience with this several years ago, and would give a heads up to parents and teenagers that even though this book is on an accessible reading level for middle grade and up, it involves content that not all families or individuals will be comfortable with.

Thank you Netgalley for letting me read this book in return for an honest review.

Kusama is a great graphic novel about the artist, Yayoi Kusama. I had heard of the artist but never really delved into her work, so this was a great book to read to learn about her story as well as seeing her art and style in the graphic novel. The graphic novel shows the story of Kusama from being young to older, it shows the relationship between Kusama and her parents as well as friends and other artists such as Andy Warhol and Joseph Cornell. It also explores her mental health and art.

It was a very interesting and visually stunning graphic novel that I will more than likely read several times and recommend to friends.

Rating- 4⭐

Reasonable graphic novel biography of the life of Japanese modern artist Yayoi Kusama, from her indulgently monochrome early works to her allegedly pervy 60s hippie sexathon things, to her modern installations of multicoloured blobs and suchlike. You might take it from that that I'm not a huge fan of her output, and I guess you're right, but I would have expected to see the same visual exuberance on these pages, rather than the staid green-free palette we get here. Also it seems a little silly to balance her entire career on one incident, as this does, when her mother demanded she follow her dad, and found him being a busy customer in the whorehouse. Still, it shows talent coming through the permanent veil over things that was her mental illness, so it's certainly an interesting narrative to visit. Perhaps three and a half stars – for a quick browse it told me a finely judged level of detail, being neither too light nor niche, and seemed to replicate her output more or less accurately.

Elisa Macellari's illustration and story of Yayoi Kusama's life balances the style of the illustrations with that of the artist, showing both the drive for her work and the impact on the art world. I had not heard of Kusama before reading this book. Yayoi Kusama is a Japanese artist who lived in New York during the avant garde and pop culture art waves. She struggled with gaining acceptance at home, both with her parents and her country. This is a lovely, quick, and visually impactful telling of her life. I recommend reading up more on her if you want the details - these are the broad strokes, highlighting her most known pieces and life events.

I received an e-galley from Laurence King Publishing via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I was first drawn to Yayoi Kusama’s work in 2013 when I stumbled upon an art installation of hers in Seoul, Korea. From then on, I had one eye on finding her other pieces whenever I was in an art space. It wasn’t until her exhibitions arrived in Toronto that I really got to appreciate her artwork. And in all this time, I never knew much about her - who she is, what her life had been like.

This graphic novel biography is the perfect way to learn about her - it seems only right that it is through a graphic novel, an art form, that one learns about Yayoi Kusama who has lived her life through art. It doesn’t go into the mundane details but rather her journey as an artist and what drives her as an artist, This graphic novel made me appreciate her even more as an artist and I look forward to when I can go view her artwork again, this time with new eyes and a fresh outlook due to my new knowledge of the artist.

Kusama is one of my favorite artists. This graphic novel really captures her life in stunning artwork just like her pieces are.

A graphic biography of an artist who in her own time was as famous as Warhol and Dali (who both make cameos in this book) but who because of her mental illness and non-neurotypical way of seeing the world was often penniless, and living in mental institutions. Yayoyi Kusama is actually still alive, living in Japan and making bizarrely beautiful art.

So I just read my first graphic novel and was very pleasantly surprised. Kusama is a graphic biography based on the life of Yayoi Kusama. Yayoi is an artist who was born in Japan in 1929. Her dream was to create art but being a female artist in Japan at that time was next to impossible. After a difficult childhood and an ongoing battle with mental illness in a time and country that did not recognize mental illness, Yayoi finally made her way to New York to fulfill her dreams. This biography was super interesting and the art style was great. There is some nudity as Yayoi did some nude living art so just a heads up there. If you are interested in graphic novels or art of any kind then I highly recommend this book. The release date is October 19th so not too much longer to wait!!! Now excuse me while I go and look up everything on Yayoi Kusama because she fascinates me!

*reviewed from uncorrected eARC / netgalley

graphic biography / Japanese artist (social history, mental illness)
a brief overview of the artist's life, just enough to pique the interest of readers who don't know a lot about Kusama.

The idea of learning about a new artist from Japan during the year that the Olympics was supposed to be held in their country was appealing and caused me to review this book via NetGalley. The cover is of one piece of art she created in NYC over her 20 years in the city. While she is not a common house hold name now, she was widely known during the same period as Warhol. Dealing with mental stress and taking medications most of her life, she used art to help overcome her diversions such as exposure to sex at a young age. (Though not directly worded, Kusama is an Ace, which helps add to our understanding of sexuality.) This graphic novel is short and easily enjoyed in one sitting, however there will be time spent afterwards researching and learning more about her career. She is still alive and creating art with a postponed retrospective coming out in 2021. Encouraged to expand my art knowledge, this GN is one to share as you will also be expanding your view and seeing how many artists intersect, even those who seem so unconnected.

I've always been enchanted with Kusama's works when I started following an art page in Twitter uplifting art by women. This graphic biography lends a creative lens on the life of the eccentric Yayoi Kusama.

Like most artists, Kusama's parents wasn't supportive of her artistic pursuits forcing her to forge her own path. The stereotype that artists have to be mentally ill and penniless isn't that baseless after all as Yayoi was in the throes of a serious illness all throughout her life. Art became her reprieve and a way for her to process her ideas and emotions.

The only installation I know of Kusama before was the one with phalluses and polka dots as well as the pumpkins. Her other eccentric works are highlighted here as well and we even get to see renowned artists like Salvador Dali and Andy Warhol! I have no idea that they were friends but this just goes to show how women of color are more often than not forgotten in the art scene.

While I like the overall aesthetic and art style of the graphic biography, I felt like there's so many details left out and even Kusama's inclination to pumpkins weren't given some spotlight here! I know for a fact she identifies as one 😂 I really wished that the writing expounded more of her life.

All in all this was a great read and I'm very thankful for Laurence King Publishing for sending me an eARC of this

I was only mildly familiar with Yayoi Kusama before reading this graphic novel. I knew who she was due to taking an art history class as well as my own Grandmother's interest in all things Japanese since she herself was Japanese.

What I expected going into this was a biographical graphic novel. But what I ended up with was a beautifully illustrated cliffsnotes version of Kusama's story.

Don't misunderstand. I liked this. The art was beautiful and I learned quite a bit more than I knew previously. To be honest my level of knowledge went from almost nothing to a little bit of knowledge thanks to this book.

This was pleasant to read thanks to Elisa Macellari's wonderful art. Kusama herself had (has) a life that ranged from sad to somber but the vivid colors and style of Macellari's art was the perfect vessel for Kusama's story.

I would still like to know even more about her life, but outside of a full biography, this was a good start. If you buy this, do it for the art. Do it for a taste of a larger story.

Thanks to Net Galley for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Kusama is probably the most famous artist that no one outside of the art world, has ever heard of. And yet, we all know about Andy Worhal, who was a rival and a contemporary.

This short biographical graphic novel goes over her life, from her point of view, full of dots, always dots, because that is what she is famous for.

We go over how she left Japan, and made it to the United States to make her mark on the world. And her mark, other than little dots, was dots on people, performance art.

And she is still alive, 91 years old. Amazing woman, based on what little the book goes into of her life. Wrote to Georgia O'Keeffe to help her get into the art world.

Highly recommended as a way for others to learn about this amazing artist, and seek out more information about her, just as I did after reading this.

Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

i had no idea graphic biographies were a thing, but i think i just discovered a new favorite genre.
i didn't know much about Kusama as an artist, or her work, before going into this. i really liked the pacing and the way the story line was told, it was really about seeing the making of an artist and i found it very interesting. the artwork is gorgeous, specially the color palette that, after doing a bit of research, definitely matches Kusama's style, but not in an exact-copy way.

I had no idea who Yayoi Kusama was when I started reading this graphic biography. The art was unique and the story followed Kusama's artistic life. A couple of times during the book, I looked up various references to Kusama's work, which suggested that I was very engaged in the story and wanted to find out more,

The images really added to the story, often more so than the brief snippets of words on the page. An interesting read about an artist who really seemed to push boundaries with expression. I would love to read more graphic novels about other interesting historical figures.

2.5 rounded up

A quick read providing a brief biography of the artist. The illustrations were fun and I liked how they - and the colour scheme - took inspiration from Kusama's work, although I felt that the text itself was lacking in places and would have been better if it had been beefed up with a bit more information about her work and background.

I know the struggle is real.

The more your family, especially when it's your parents, when they are against what you live for.

When you have your dreams pushing you to love more and work more and achieve more;

When no one dear and close to you are the worse mortal enemies no one sees;

When you actually suffer every waking moment of your life when you struggle with being yourself;

Mental health, identity, being born as a woman, a profession taken to be as men's - all these issues are represented and illustrated quite well.

I would not allow myself to judge what artists do what they do for their work as their work as they art.
I would not judge an artist for their life or their personal relationships.

An amazingly done biographical book.

Dark and sad but captivating!


Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

This is a beautiful graphic novel about the life and art of Yayoi Kasuma. I went to Infinity Mirrors at the Art Gallery of Ontario in 2018 and loved it. I learned a lot more about Kasuma’s life and her motivation for creating her art from this book.

Yayoi Kusama is a legend, and this is what makes me love this graphic novel even more. Elisa Macellari captured the essences of Kusama's life, and the art and content of the graphic novel is definitely my cup of tea. Love Kusama and everything related to her. Strongly recommended.