Lu says that, though it remains a growing movement in the art market in Asia, animamix art still has had difficulty making inroads into the West.
"It is difficult to develop this kind of art in Europe or America because the [position of] modern … and conceptual art is too powerful. This is not so powerful a tradition in Asia," she said. Only with recent high-profile sales of Murakami's and Nara's art has that begun to change.
"[Dealers] now see Murakami [and] Nara selling well and are taking the artwork seriously. Before they thought [it was] childish. But for Asian countries, we … don't have the heavy modernist tradition weighing us down."
Ironically, Japan, the country that spawned animamix art and is getting the highest prices at the auction block is the country that has been least receptive to the art form. Hikaru Morioka, director of Gallery Unseal, says Japan's late arrival to the international art market coupled with a general lack of interest in local contemporary art has resulted in minimal interest in animamix compared to South Korea and China.
Contemporary art galleries in Japan always look to Europe or New York for artists, he said. This, however, has begun to change.
Four years ago there were practically no galleries in Tokyo dealing in Japanese contemporary art, he said. Today the number has grown to around 40 - though a figure Morioka still thinks is too low for such a large metropolitan center and the birthplace of manga and anime.
South Korea has a vibrant art scene due in part to a government law that makes it mandatory for most newly built buildings to devote a percentage of their budget to acquiring art. Hwaik Lee, who represents Kang, says the works in her gallery typically sell for between US$5,000 and US$50,000, with buyers coming from all over the world.
Morioka says collectors and dealers curious about China are stimulating interest. It's a sentiment echoed by Lu, though one she says has as much to do with the Japanese art market as it does with interest in China. "In Tokyo, the market is mostly for Japanese collectors. But Shanghai and Beijing will be a platform for all Asian art, not just Chinese art," Lu said, citing a group of Italian collectors who recently purchased Japanese works from galleries in China.
"There are many Korean galleries [with] branches in Beijing and Shanghai," she said. "Japan is following."
Animamix responds to and builds on previous movements. In this case, it builds on the formal ideas of modernism and escapes from the mystifying creations of abstract art. It also draws upon local pop culture.
"Animamix art will be as important for the 21st century as abstract art was for the 20th century," Lu said.
Be that as it may, for artists like Kang, it's simply representing what he sees around him in a style that is accessible to the public.
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