Cocky, irreverant and devil-may-care, invariably to be found surrounded by admirers as he holds forth from behind a big fat cigar, the Neo-Pop painter Takashi Murakami has for the last few years been one of Japan's leading international art stars.
In no small part, this may be due to him borrowing big-time from the Andy Warhol route-map to celebrity, specifically the part that says an artist's public image often plays a bigger role in advancing their reputation than the work they produce. And it seems that on the celebrity-starved Tokyo art scene, another bright young thing will be following in similar footsteps.
The positively wacky Hanayo Nakajima -- "Hanayo," as she calls herself -- has built quite a cult following in Europe and America over the last decade. The 32-year-old multi- disciplinary artist, who is based in Berlin, is now showing at the Gallery Koyanagi, on the Ginza Strip, where she has some 50 color photographs on display.