Twenty-odd years ago, I moonlighted as a cab driver in Toronto. I still remember how easy it was to glance in the rearview mirror and peg visitors from the American city of Buffalo, N.Y. They were generally polite and well-dressed, but in the affected manner of a child done up in his Sunday best, squirming a little on the sofa in grandma's parlor. Gazing out the windows at the unlittered boulevards of Canada's most sanitized metropolis, the weekenders would often initiate conversation with a line like, "It's so clean and safe here in Toronto." "Yes, I suppose it is," I would reply. I felt like offering them a bowl of big white peppermints.

The streets of Buffalo, by comparison, were black with oil, leaked from the cars with odd-colored door panels that trailed along. The nearly deserted downtown was made up of storefront check-cashing enterprises, distressed diners, lonely bars hawking cheap booze and, in flickering neon, the city's favorite finger food: (buzz) "Chicken wings!" (buzz) "Chicken wings!"

It was from that environment that a 16-year-old Vincent Gallo fled in 1978. He also left behind his hairdresser parents -- a mother he has described as a thief, and a father who reportedly beat him almost every day. Poor and depressed, Gallo landed in New York City, where he worked to express himself creatively, in the 20th-century arte povera style, which developed in Italy and treated found objects as art material. Gallo used metal sheets and trashcan lids as his canvases, scrawling upon them and scratching them with the few comforting images -- mostly, of cut flowers -- that he had salvaged from his Buffalo childhood.

Within a few years, Gallo was picked up by Annina Nosei, dealer to Jean-Michel Basquiat, Barbara Kruger and David Salle. And then, Gallo gave up painting. In a 1997 interview with himself ("Gallo on Gallo," for Grand Royal Magazine), the cranky artist explained: "I stopped painting in 1990 at the peak of my success just to deny people my beautiful paintings. And I did it out of spite."

And now Gallo is a big star. The semi-autobiographical film "Buffalo 66," written and directed by and starring Gallo, was released in Japan in 1999 and earned him a tremendous cult following here. This was exploited by savvy youth-oriented department-store chain Parco in a nationwide television ad campaign featuring Gallo with his then-partner, Bethany.

Well, Bethany's back, as part of a 120-strong selection of photographs, paintings, texts and objets, "Vincent Gallo Retrospective 1997-2002," now showing at Tokyo's Hara Museum of Contemporary Art. But she doesn't look so good, as Gallo has spray painted, scrawled over and scratched out her face in stills from the Parco shoot. Dozens of these bitter pictures join big treated stills from "Buffalo 66" in the Hara's main exhibition room, testimony to Gallo's enduring animosity.

"I don't think he likes human beings," says a source close to this exhibition. Indeed, Gallo has a history of what might be euphemistically referred to as "frankness" when it comes to expressing his feelings about associates, particularly his present Hollywood, Calif. neighbors. London-based newspaper The Observer went so far as to describe Gallo as "the man who's made the most enemies in L.A."

Good for you, Vincent! It is increasingly rare in these backscratching days to find determined and singular talent.

In the works on distressed metal that form the bulk of this show, one sees a Gallo who is at his best when doing things his way -- adapting to, but not compromised by, the shape and size of his appropriated metal signs; conquering them with the light and lyrical memories of an otherwise dark childhood. These works, in a Duchampian way, stress the artist's desire -- and his need -- to take and rework the stuff of his environment on his own terms.

A Hara curator explains that Gallo selected, packed and shipped these pieces to the museum by himself. He has no agent, no manager. He maintains his own Web site (www.vincentgallo.com) He didn't make it over for his exhibition's opening reception, and while he is expected to show up at the Hara sometime in September, museum staff are not holding their breath. Meanwhile, Hollywood big shots are said to be lining up to throw money at Gallo, yet he continues to refuse offers to write or direct or star in someone else's project.

I expected this to be a weak show capitalizing on Gallo's cult status here in Japan. I was wrong. It is wonderful. Surprise!