Art Salon: “The Impact on the Psyche of Not Belonging: The Recognition and Non-Recognition of Women Artists, Yayoi Kusama”

The SPSI Art Salon Committee presents the second film in our series “The Impact on the Psyche of Not Belonging: The Recognition and Non-Recognition of Women Artists”. We will be screening the film, Kusama: Infinity, to be followed by an audience discussion led by Mary Sacco, LMHC and John Olson, MD.

Now the top-selling female artist in the world, Yayoi Kusama overcame impossible odds to bring her radical artistic vision to the world stage. For decades, her work pushed boundaries that often alienated her from both her peers and those in power in the art world. Kusama was an underdog with everything stacked against her: the trauma of growing up in Japan during World War II, life in a dysfunctional family that discouraged her creative ambitions, sexism and racism in the art establishment, mental illness in a culture where that was particularly shameful and even continuing to pursue and be devoted to her art full time on the cusp of her 90s. In spite of it all, Kusama has endured and has created a legacy of artwork that spans the disciplines of painting, sculpture, installation art, performance art, poetry, and literary fiction. After working as an artist for over six decades, people around the globe are experiencing her installation Infinity Mirrored Rooms in record numbers, as Kusama continues to create new work every day.

More information about the artist and the film can be found on the website: http://www.kusamamovie.com/

John Olson is a retired psychoanalyst and sometimes painter whose art works are identified by the anagram “nhojnoslo.”

Mary Sacco is a 5th year Candidate at NPSI, and an honorary faculty member at SPSI. She has been on the SPSI Art Salon Committee since 2020.  She has a private practice in Ballard. She studied painting in college and spent many years in New Mexico enjoying the arts community there and the famous, high desert light that has inspired many.