Amsterdam's Stedelijk Museum is hosting a major exhibition dedicated to Yayoi Kusama, just two weeks after the Japanese artist passed away at the age of 97. The centerpiece of the show is an immersive installation titled Infinity Mirrored Room — The Hope Of The Polka Dots Buried In Infinity Will Eternally Cover The Universe. Inside, visitors are surrounded by yellow tentacles decorated with rhythmic patterns of dots, which are mirrored on the floor and walls, creating a dreamlike, endless space. The exhibition, which opened this week, transforms what was initially planned as a retrospective into a posthumous celebration of Kusama, one of the most famous contemporary artists of the modern era, known for her use of polka dots and repetitive patterns to depict her unique vision of the world. Even before entering the museum, visitors are greeted by Kusama’s signature polka dots. The facade of the Stedelijk is covered in them, and the surrounding Museum Square features red fabric wrapped around trees, also adorned with the same pattern. Among the artworks on display is a large pumpkin made of fiber-reinforced plastic and painted with black dots in varying sizes, covering its yellow surface. According to exhibition curator Leontine Coelewij, Kusama used these repetitive patterns as a way to cope with hallucinations she experienced from a young age. Kusama had a long-standing connection with the Netherlands and the Stedelijk Museum. She was active in Amsterdam and other Dutch cities during the 1960s, a time of artistic freedom and experimentation. Her work was closely associated with the ZERO movement, a European art movement founded in the late 1950s by German artists Heinz Mack and Otto Piene. Kusama participated in a landmark exhibition of the ZERO movement at the Stedelijk in 1965. A photo from that event shows her in a white kimono, standing among the male artists of the movement. In 1967, she famously covered the naked body of Dutch artist Jan Schoonhoven with painted dots in a chapel near Rotterdam, an event known as a "happening." Coelewij noted that Kusama was drawn to the Netherlands for its openness, tolerance, and liberal culture, and she felt at home in Amsterdam, which was a hub of countercultural and hippie movements during that time. The exhibition spans several rooms and includes an escalator lined with mirrors leading to the infinity room installation, which was originally created for an exhibition at Cologne’s Museum Ludwig. Coelewij described the room as a "hallucinating world" that allows visitors to step into Kusama’s mind. The exhibition honors Kusama’s own words from 10 years ago, when she said she was "still fighting to the death for my art," and that she wanted her work to continue to inspire people even after her death. The exhibition at the Stedelijk opens on Friday and will run through January 17.