"Prime" at Tokyo Opera City is a magnificent demonstration of color, form and size. Sparse yet well displayed, this exhibition breathes freely and expressively in the high open space, which in Tokyo is a rare and valuable experience. Each artist is chosen to develop various aspects of curator Santo Oshima's intention to distill the "primal" fundamentals of art by concentrating on color and form.
Oshima is passionate about the show, having obviously spent many hours ruminating on the merits of the work and the individual expression of each particular artist he included. The exhibition glides among a variety of artistic styles and concerns, opening with the great abstract swaths of paint in Yuumi Domoto's work.
Domoto, 40, is already well known in Japan and hails from a famous lineage, her father being one of the most important abstract painters of the postwar period. After living and studying in the U.S., Domoto came back 10 years ago to take up the family mantle.