Her artworks often go for record-breaking, multi-million-dollar prices at auction, and her exhibitions have drawn unprecedentedly large crowds, resulting in insanely long lines and internet-breaking ticket sales.

 Her name is Yayoi Kusama, and you may be wondering, "What's the big deal with her?"

Kusama is probably best known for her sculptural works and immersive installations, but is also a prolific painter, performance artist, fashion designer, experimental filmmaker, poet, and novelist.

Her enormous body of work has had profound influences in not only the contemporary art world, but also on a deeper level of social, political, and philosophical thinking.

One consistent motif in Kusama's works is the continuous explorations of polka dots from organic biomorphic forms, to large-scale woven patterns, to endless shimmering lights, to brightly-colored dots on sculptures, installations, and human bodies.

Another related idea of hers is the consistent examination of infinity, and the polka dot motif actually represents this on both micro and macro levels.

Infinities can be inconceivably large or inconceivably small.

So, while Kusama's Infinity Rooms can evoke ideas of the grand, infinite universe, her dotted paintings and replicating patterns also allude to microscopic cells and exploding atomic particles.

Kusama was born in 1929 in Matsumoto, Japan; although she studied traditional Japanese painting during her early years in art school, she was more interested in the avant-garde.

Although her style did not appeal to the mainstream Japanese community at the time, her obsessive psychological expressions caught the interest of some prominent Japanese scholars and art critics.

By 1954, she had exhibited in various solo shows around the country as well as caught the attention of some western collectors.

In 1955, she also blindly wrote to American artists Kenneth Callahan and Georgia O'Keefe to seek advice.

Both actually responded to her, enthusiastically supporting her work and encouraging her to move to the US.

She would eventually end up in New York in 1958.

Late 1950s America was a time when many artists were reacting against the movement of abstract expressionism.

Many became less interested in gestural brushstrokes and more interested in flat, repetitive compositions that are self referential and internally contemplative.

This resulted in enormous interest in Kusama's signature Infinity Nets series.

However, although her works appealed to minimalists, Kusama didn't necessarily conform to their philosophies.

Nevertheless, her works during this period significantly influenced many modernists' transition from abstract expressionism to minimalism.

In the early 1960s, against the backdrop of a psychedelic, politically-charged era of civil rights movements and sexual liberation, Kusama began a series of soft phallic sculptures that she attached all over walls, floors, furniture, and everyday objects.

Known as the Accumulations series, she once again employed her signature technique of methodical repetition.

Accumulations have also been compared to similar soft sculptures produced by American artist Claes Oldenburg.

And Kusama's practice of repetition would influence pop artists like Andy Warhol, who was deeply interested in the ideas of multiplicity and commercial proliferation.

But once again, although her works shared similar ideas with pop artists, Kusama's interest was not exactly in line with their ideologies.

Rather than focusing on pop cultural imagery and mass consumption, she was more interested in creating immersive experiences that blurred the boundaries between architecture and art.

By 1965, Kusama had incorporated a more efficient way of visually expressing exponential repetition by using mirrors.

This resulted in her first Infinity Room, "Phalli' s Field", a mirrored room that not only simulated the experience of infinity, but also made the artwork into a participatory experience for the viewer.

How you are reflected within the mirrors, the way you occupy the space and position your body inevitably makes you a part of the artwork.

Kusama continued to produce sexually charged works throughout the 1960s, such as staging numerous controversial public performances.

Like many contemporary artists, Kusama was aware of the limitations of traditional institutions, and she was interested in reaching audiences beyond the art galleries.

These performances blurred the lines between high and low art, and was a significant step in democratizing the access of art for the masses.

At the 1966 Venice Biennale, although Kusama was not an official exhibitor, she was invited by Italian artist Lucio Fontana to exhibit on the lawn outside the Italian Pavillon.

Her work was titled "Narcissus Garden" and composed of 1,500 mirrored balls.

During the Biennale, Kusama placed a sign in front of it saying "Your Narcissism for Sale" and sold each mirrored ball to passing visitors for 2 dollars each.

The Biennale officials quickly caught onto this and removed her from doing so.

But through this act, Kusama drew attention to the often uncomfortable realities of commercialization and commodification of art.

In the age social media, the exploration of narcissism is also evermore relevant.

On the distorted mirrored ball is the viewer's own reflection, which is often snapped by gallery visitors and uploaded to places like Facebook, Instagram, or Snapchat.

In later years, Kusama would continue to bring her art out into the world as well as bring visitors into immersive environments by inviting them to become a part of the artwork.

The "Obliteration Room" has been a traveling installation since 2002, where it starts off as a completely white room filled with white domestic furniture.

Visitors are given a pad of colourful circular stickers to place anywhere in the room.

As the exhibition goes on, the room is transformed into another explosion of brightly-colored polka dots.

In the early 2000s, Kusama made a departure from her earlier vivid and sculptural infinity rooms, and began creating dimly-lit rooms activated by lights and mirrors.

These environments often evoke visitors to contemplate the experience on an existential, cosmological level.

Many feel that these boundless galactic spaces give them an out-of-body experience, as if your consciousness has been transported to a galaxy millions of light years away.

I find it fascinating that, although Kusama has faced many hardship and challenges throughout her life, contrarily, her art seems to bring an incredibly positive, vibrant, and animated life force.

She has also maintained a consistent ideological motif throughout her entire career, yet her visual language is always transforming and adapting to new ideas.

She's been a key influencer of many significant art movements, yet she has always had a uniquely distinctive style that defies categorization.

And in this post-Internet age where the distinction of virtual and physical life is increasingly blurred, I'd argue that her ideas are more relevant today than they've ever been.

With the ceaseless snapshots of Infinity Rooms shared across social platforms, each viewer is adding to the never-ending performance of Kusama's works while also continuing her pursuit of democratizing the experience of art beyond the art gallery.

If you are watching this video in 2018 and you live in or around Toronto, Cleveland, or Atlanta, or you can get yourself to one of these places, then you have a chance to see a spectacular survey exhibition called "Infinity Mirrors".

I'll put the links in the description below on where where you can find out more information about those shows.

But be warned! Tickets sell out very fast and be prepared to wait in some very long lines.

But I think it's worth it!

Good luck and send me your #InfiniteKusama pictures.