Just in case you didn't know already: Kenji Yanobe is back.
At the time of this writing, Yanobe is in the inaugural show at Shiseido Corp.'s sparkling new Ginza art space; is featured prominently in the Nippon Contemporary Art Fair at the Tokyo International Forum and the "Gift of Hope" group show at the Museum of Tokyo; and has just opened at the respected Roentgen Kunstraum Gallery in Aoyama. Not much has been heard from the one-time art superstar in the last few years -- but this spring in Tokyo, Yanobe is bigger even than Anne Daems.
It was back in the early 1990s when Yanobe, along with Taro Chiezo and later Mariko Mori, established himself as one of Japan's hottest Futurama artists. While most bubble-era art-yen was invested in the work of dead Impressionists, a trickle of funding did make it into the contemporary market, and this engendered a brat pack of young art stars.