Yayoi Kusama at the Stedelijk Museum: Amsterdam's Must-See Exhibition Right Now

If you're in Amsterdam between now and mid-January, there's one exhibition you shouldn't skip: Yayoi Kusama has taken over the Stedelijk Museum with the biggest retrospective of her work ever shown in the Netherlands.

A once-in-a-generation show

More than 300 works trace seven decades of Kusama's career — from her earliest paintings made in Japan in the 1950s, through her radical New York years, to pieces she created right up until the end of her life. Around 50 works have never been shown publicly before. At the heart of the exhibition is a brand-new Infinity Mirrored Room, created especially for this show, where mirrors, colour and Kusama's signature dots stretch out into what feels like forever.

The exhibition has taken on extra meaning this year: Kusama passed away in August 2026, just weeks before the doors opened, so what was planned as a career retrospective has become a moving tribute to one of the most influential artists of the last century.

Why it's worth the visit

• Scale — this is the largest Kusama show ever staged in the Netherlands, built in collaboration with Fondation Beyeler (Basel) and Museum Ludwig (Cologne), with Amsterdam as the final stop.
• The Infinity Mirror Room — Kusama's mirror rooms are the reason people queue around the block wherever they show; this one was made specifically for the Stedelijk.
• Rare and new work — pieces on loan from museums in Tokyo and Kusama's birthplace, Matsumoto, many never displayed before.
• A genuine moment in art history — with Kusama's passing, this exhibition is unlikely to be repeated in this form.

Good to know before you go

• Dates: 11 September 2026 – 17 January 2027
• Location: Stedelijk Museum, Museumplein 10, Amsterdam — right next to the Van Gogh Museum, a five-minute walk from the Rijksmuseum
• Tickets: timed-entry tickets are required and this show is expected to sell out, so book ahead via stedelijk.nl
• Getting there: tram 2 or 24 from Amsterdam Centraal, or tram 5 from Station Zuid

Make a day of it

Museumplein is one of the best pockets of Amsterdam for a full art-and-culture day — the Rijksmuseum and Van Gogh Museum are both a short walk away. If all those dots and colours leave you wanting to bring a little of that same joy home, swing by Polycurios afterwards. We're an Amsterdam shop built around exactly that feeling: colourful, one-of-a-kind interior pieces and art from local makers — the kind of unique gifts you won't stumble across anywhere else in the city.