Image caption,

Yayoi Kusama's colourful artworks fill a huge warehouse-like section of the new venue

By Ian Youngs

Entertainment & arts reporter

An eye-catching, immersive and Instagram-friendly array of giant inflatable multi-coloured sculptures has launched one of the UK's biggest new cultural venues for years.

The huge polka dot-covered girls, dogs and pumpkins were designed by crowd-pleasing Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama.

Her exhibition is the first public show at Manchester's Aviva Studios, on the site of the old Granada TV studios.

The £211m venue has gone £133m over budget and four years behind schedule.

It is described as the largest new national cultural project since the opening of the Tate Modern in London in 2000.

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The venue was first proposed in 2014 by the government, who have provided £100m

Image source, Reuters Image caption,

The Kusama exhibition opens to the public on Friday and runs until August