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Takao Iijima, better known as Ay-O, is a Japanese avant-garde visual and performance artist who has been associated with Fluxus since the 1960s. He graduated from the University of Tsukuba in 1954. Together with artists such as On Kawara, Ay-O was an active member of the Demokrato Artists Association (1953–1957), a group of artist and critics who propagated freedom of artistic expression. Ay-O soon developed a greater interest in the versatility and multiplicity of printmaking, which later became integral to his practice. In 1958, Ay-O moved to New York, where he began engaging in Pop Art and, in 1961, became involved with Fluxus through Yoko Ono. He began collaborating with George Maciunas, Emmett Williams, and Nam June Paik, developing his interactive objects and immersive environments. To follow, he performed in several Fluxus events, including the 2nd Annual New York Avant Garde Festival at Carnegie Recital Hall, New York in 1964. Conceived like other constructable, dispatchable, and participatory Fluxus editions, the playful Finger Box series (1965) emphasizes touch and consists of palm-sized hollow cubes containing different materials. Returning to Tokyo in 1966, Ay-O presented Happening for Sightseeing Bus Trip, organized in conjunction with his solo exhibition at the Minami Gallery. The event took sixty participants aboard two rented buses. Along the route, renowned Fluxus Happenings took place, including events by Wolf Vostell, Al Hansen, and Allan Kaprow. Beyond his activities as a member of the avant-garde, Ay-O is best known for his vibrant oil paintings and colorful rainbow-patterned prints, earning him the epithet of “Rainbow Man.” In most of these works, Ay-O combines bands of color with figurative motifs from traditional Japanese art; in their purest form, however, several paintings are composed solely of simple stripes of color gradations. Examples include the Tactile Rainbow Room, created for the Expo ’70 in Osaka, and the ambitious Rainbow Happening #17 (1987), a design for a 300-meter-long banner temporarily affixed to the Eiffel Tower. Ay-O represented Japan at the 1966 Biennale di Venezia and the 1971 Bienal de São Paulo, where he received the Brazil Bank Prize. He has had notable international retrospectives at the Fukui Fine Arts Museum (2006) and the Tsukuba Museum of Art (2010), as well as a traveling exhibition for major Japanese museums. His works can be found in numerous collections worldwide, including those of The Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Tokyo National Museum of Modern Art, and the Kyoto National Museum of Modern Art.