For nearly 70 years, Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama has developed a practice that shares affinities with surrealism, minimalism, abstraction, and pop art—but cannot be limited to specific movements. Perhaps for this very reason, the opening of an exhibition at the Serralves Museum in Porto in March overshadows all of the institution's remaining annual programmes.

Yayoi Kusama is 95 years old and was born in rural Japan, to a family of merchants who were strongly opposed to her artistic practice. Its visual form composed of circular patterns and infinitely large rooms, with an almost hypnotic flair, manages to unite several generations. In the endless fields of balls, he was able to create a “self-erasing” effect, a repetition of the hallucinations he said he had experienced in early childhood.

At the museum, which celebrates its 25th anniversary this year, and in Serralves Park, the theme of those patterns will occupy the space from March to October of this year. There are over 200 works highlighted from 1945 to the present.

But it's not just Kusama who makes the annual poster for Serralves' 35th anniversary and the museum's 25th anniversary: ​​“It's [programação] “The most ambitious ever,” said Ana Pinho, chair of the board of directors.