Tokyo's newest art star is one-year-old Thumbelina

Gripping paintbrush and crayon, the artist known as Thumbelina splodges and splats with merry abandon, the one-year-old star of a Tokyo exhibition that goes on way past her bedtime.

- TOMOHIRO OSAKI

Abstract paintings by the toddler are on sale for 33,000 yen (7,720 baht) at her debut show at the hip gallery Decameron, tucked above a bar in the Kabu-kicho red-light district.

Thumbelina’s vivid style is “babyish but mysteriously dexterous”, gallery director — and matchmaker of her parents — Dan Isomura said.

“I thought, ‘wow, these are legit artworks’,” Isomura said, describing his first impression of her free-form creations.

Colourful smudges adorn tatami mats and tables at the 21-month-old’s suburban home, where her mother patiently helps twist open paint tubes and squeeze them onto paper.

“I can see this rhythm in her movements and patterns...she knows what she’s doing,” said the evacuee from Ukraine in her 20s, asking to remain anonymous for privacy reasons.