At age 88, Yayoi Kusama is one of the world’s most successful living artists and one of the top-selling female artists in history.

For those unfamiliar with her prolific body of work, her gargantuan polka dot paintings, phallic soft sculptures, and nude performance anti-war protests cleverly straddle pop art and the avant-garde. Her selfie-crazed Infinity Mirrors exhibitions have seen a whopping 5 million museum visitors since 2013. However, Kusama’s journey to the top of the art world wasn’t an easy climb.