Yukihisa Isobe is renowned as an artist who links abstractionism in 1950s and pop art in 1960s.
Isobe started his career making prints in 1950' and created repetitiously emblems using materials such as plaster mixed with marble, emboss, and water color drawings and prints.
He produced a series of works that were composed of repeated emblem motifs in the early 1960s, which brought attention to him. These works consist of textures and three-dimensional structures like fresco paintings. The composition formed by irregularly repeated colors is very different from automatic repetition and multiplication that are typical in the pop art of the same generation; it is Isobe's unique structure of repetition in abstract form. Isobe's abstract expression incorporates symbolism of substance, repetition and mass productivity that are often seen in pop art, but reconstruct them beyond the boundary. With this, Isobe pioneered a new genre, a fusion of abstractionism and pop art.
From 1990s when he restarted creating works to today, Isobe has been active as an environmental artist, producing land art works with themes of local communities and the natural environment. He continues to create and exhibit works on the stage of Earth, literally. Since 2000 he has been participating in the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale, presenting outdoor art works with a theme of the Shinano River.