Gems and Pebbles

Yuumi Domoto is a Japanese contemporary artist born in Paris in 1960. She graduated from Department of Painting at Tama Art University and the Cooper Union School of Art in New York. Since her first solo show at Sagacho Exhibit Space in Tokyo in 1990, her works have been exhibited extensively in a number of shows in and outside Japan, including the 7th Pusan Youth Biennale in Korea in 1994, VOCA ’95 – The Vision of Contemporary Art at the Ueno Royal Museum in 1995, ART TODAY 1998 – Mimesis at Sezon Museum of Modern Art in Nagano in 1998, 11th Asian Art Biennale Bangladesh in 2004, NO MAN’S LAND at French Embassy in Tokyo in 2009, and Playback Artist Talks at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo. Domoto draws dynamic abstract paintings with the entire surfaces covered with big brush strokes. Powerful curves and the brightly colored spacious background, as seen in her recent works, create a dramatic, narrative pictorial space.

Gems and Pebbles was exhibited in Art Today 1998 – Mimesis held at Sezon Museum of Modern Art in 1998. Domoto produced the pictorial space where depth is reversed through layers of different qualities. In addition to verticality and horizontality, viewers recognize time from broad brush strokes. Gradations applied on the flat figurations evoke those of ukiyo-e.