Made for the USA

摘要

Japan does a booming business exporting contemporary art, and its artists have begun to weave occidental elements into their works, making the pieces that much more attractive to foreign collectors. The king of creating J-pop art with a Western twist is Tokyo's Takashi Murakami, he of the cheerful, cherry-bedecked Louis Vuitton handbags. This hybridization has also proven fruitful for Murakami's proteges: Many of his students-ex-assistants at his Kaikai Kiki art "factory" or discoveries from Geisai, his biannual art fair-are becoming noted talents in their own right. "We wanted to create a training ground in the Tokyo art scene that would cultivate a new surge in Japanese art," Murakami says. Consider this surge a success. Here are three of his most apt pupils.