Who the Art World Is Supporting at the FIFA World Cup 2026 https://ift.tt/mVMDklX

Football, ca. 1980
Steve Kuzma
G & O Art

Pelé kissing the World Cup Trophy, 2013
Terry O'Neill
Trimper Gallery

Whether you call it football or soccer, fútbol, or futebol, the sport is no doubt going to be everywhere this summer thanks to the FIFA World Cup 2026. The most-watched sporting event on the planet, the World Cup will take place this year across the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, marking the first time three nations have co-hosted the tournament.

With the first game kicking off on June 11th, World Cup fever is already spreading in the art world. Artsy asked a cross-section of artists, curators, and gallerists for their predictions and highlights, plus the one artist they’d tap to design a jersey.

J. Rachel Gustafson, chief curatorial officer at the Norton Museum of Art

Who they’re supporting

I love the upsets when an underdog comes through and surprises everyone. For that reason, I will be keeping my eyes on Japan.

What they’re looking forward to

Sweat and camaraderie. For me, the World Cup has great summertime memories attached to it, where being hot and a bit sweaty is intertwined with the excitement and fast pace of the game itself. Even if your group of friends is rooting for the other team, everyone is so darn happy—really, elated—to watch how things unfold.

And if your team loses, I find that the happiness does not dampen. The camaraderie and exhilaration of close calls are a joyful combination no matter the outcome. So, find some shade and some good friends, and you will have a full summer of soccer-laced memories.

This Manifestation of Historical Restlessness, (from Robin's Intimacy), 2022
Julie Mehretu
Gemini G.E.L.

The artist they’d tap to design a soccer jersey

Julie Mehretu. Her fluid and expressive lines so closely align with the sport’s movements. Lyrical, unpredictable, and energized.

Charles Hascoët, artist

Who they’re supporting

I’ve been a devout Paris Saint-Germain fan since my teenage years, so the club will always come first in my heart. But if France lifts the trophy, I certainly won’t complain.

France over Spain in the final. Thanks to a goal by Ousmane Dembélé following a pass by Michael Olise.

What they’re looking forward to

The underdogs, the creative players, the unexpected moments. Once the politicians and FIFA officials fade into the background, what’s left is pure passion and next-level football. That’s always the best part.

The artist they’d tap to design a soccer jersey

I’d be curious to see what [fashion designers] Miguel Adrover or Karim Hadjab could do. But after all, a shirt is only truly designed by the players wearing it. Some of history’s ugliest kits became the most iconic artifacts because inspired players transcended them into something else entirely.

Lyndon Barrois Sr., artist

Who they’re supporting

I’m a fan of long shots. Senegal is definitely up there. How cool would that be, to see a sub-Saharan country take a championship home? And then Portugal. Cristiano Ronaldo has no rings, so it’d be cool to see the 41-year-old get one.

What they’re looking forward to

How many fans will show up due to all the price-gouging that’s going on? We can’t act like it isn’t happening. It’s far beyond what happens on the pitch.

The artist they’d tap to design a soccer jersey

Melissa Koby. She is an exceptional graphic artist, and her medium of using cut paper is marvelous. Her clean, crisp lines and color palette would translate to excellent jersey designs.

Touria El Glaoui, founding director of 1-54 art fairs

Younes’s Back, 2012/1433
Hassan Hajjaj
L'Atelier 21

Who they’re supporting

Morocco, obviously. I have already prepared myself emotionally for the celebrations. But I’ll also be fully Team Africa: South Africa, Egypt, Ghana, Senegal, Tunisia, Algeria, Ivory Coast, and Cape Verde.

What they’re looking forward to

Morocco winning.

The artist they’d tap to design a soccer jersey

Hassan Hajjaj, without hesitation. He already made an incredible piece for [Morocco captain] Achraf Hakimi, so he is more than ready. And since Morocco is clearly winning the World Cup…it has to be a Moroccan artist.

Massimo De Carlo, founder of MASSIMODECARLO

System Black IV, 2024
Ludovic Nkoth
MASSIMODECARLO

Who they’re supporting

BRAZIL.

What they’re looking forward to

Hope to see some great new players and new teams.

The artist they’d tap to design a soccer jersey

Ludovic Nkoth and Elmgreen & Dragset!

Roger Tatley, senior director at Goodman Gallery

Who they’re supporting

Senegal. It’s way beyond time for our continent to win it. My club loyalties tell the story: Chelsea in the U.K., Orlando Pirates—Soweto’s finest since 1937—in South Africa, and Fluminense FC in Brazil, thanks to Lygia Clark’s wonderful extended family, who helped me fall under their spell in Rio.

What they’re looking forward to

South Africa. The Bafana Bafana supporters’ kudu-horn Kuduzelas and Vuvuzelas versus the Mexicans’ matracas and redoblantes drums should bring the noise before both teams’ first kick-off.

Peasant Revolt II, 2024
William Kentridge with Greta Goiris
Goodman Gallery

The artist they’d tap to design a soccer jersey

William Kentridge. The remarkable concertina-folded paper and fabric garments he and costume designer Greta Goiris make would look incredible flying down the wing.

Lee Cavailaire, director of VOLTA art fairs

Magical Thinking, 2024
Grayson Perry
MLTPL

Who they’re supporting

I haven’t the faintest idea who’ll win. But when Spain won [in 2010], the party in central London was pretty epic.

The artist they’d tap to design a soccer jersey

Grayson Perry. I think the sport could do with challenging its strong male persona. Some frills would liven the whole thing up.

Bosco Sodi, artist

Pile Up: High relief n°B12, 2018
Daniel Buren
Lisson Gallery

Who they’re supporting

Mexico. I have tickets for all of their games, and I’m expecting them to go to the quarterfinals.

What they’re looking forward to

The World Cup always surfaces so many artists who love football. I play and watch games with many of them. There’s a whole community around it.

Who they think will win

England or Spain.

The artist they’d tap to design a soccer jersey

It’s my dream to one day design the Mexico jersey. But if I had to choose someone else, I would love to see a jersey by Daniel Buren.

Jennifer Scott, director of Dulwich Picture Gallery

Cartwheel of Dreams, 2025
Yinka Ilori
Cristea Roberts Gallery

Who they’re supporting

Brazil. They always have incredible talent.

What they’re looking forward to

France. I’m excited to see how their next generation of players performs on the biggest stage.

The artist they’d tap to design a soccer jersey

Vivien Zhang. Her color palette is fantastic, and there’s something both dynamic and organic about her work that would translate really well to a football jersey.

Aziz Isham, executive director at the Museum of the Moving Image

One Year Performance 1981-198, 1981-1982
Tehching Hsieh
Taipei Fine Arts Museum

Who they’re supporting

I always like to cheer for the underdog, and one of the teams I’m pulling for this year is Morocco. I lived in Tangier in my twenties, and it was the first time that I was exposed to real soccer culture.

What they’re looking forward to

Iran v. New Zealand in L.A., [which] is home to the largest Iranian community outside Iran, and there will be a lot of feelings. I don’t know much about them, but I do know that it’s going to feel really good—and maybe cathartic—to be cheering together that day.

The artist they’d tap to design a soccer jersey

Tehching Hsieh. I’m dying to see his retrospective at Dia Beacon, and I like the idea of jerseys that are connected to each other by eight-foot ropes or something.

Mariët Westermann, director and CEO of the Guggenheim Museum

Dress, autumn/winter 2013– 14
Iris van Herpen
The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Who they’re supporting

I’ve been a devoted Netherlands fan since I was eight years old, though I always cheer for the U.S.

when they’re not playing the Dutch.

What they’re looking forward to

I’m especially looking forward to welcoming soccer fans, art lovers, New Yorkers, and visitors from around the world to the Guggenheim to celebrate the beautiful game played at World Cup level. We’re presenting Zidane: a 21st-century portrait (2006), a fan-favorite video work by Douglas Gordon and Philippe Parreno [that] illustrates the remarkable intersection and artistry of contemporary art and sport.

We’ll also be livestreaming matches on Friday afternoons at Frank’s Pub—a pop-up space hosted inside a UNESCO World Heritage site, no less.

Ensemble, 2024
Sanford Biggers
MASSIMODECARLO

The artist they’d tap to design a soccer jersey

I’d love to see Iris van Herpen design a Netherlands jersey—as long as it remains orange—or Sanford Biggers create a jersey for the U.S.

Martin Clark, director of Camden Art Centre

I Think About Football, 2023
David Shrigley
FairArt

Who they’re supporting

I’m supporting England, and I have to say I’m excited to see how Thomas Tuchel does—I love that he’s our first German manager.

What they’re looking forward to

I’ll go for England to go out in the semis, France to win it. (As my son Oscar put it when I asked him: “Dembélé, Kylian Mbappé, Désiré Doué, and Olise!”)

Abstraktes Bild (P1), 1990/2014
Gerhard Richter
EARLH

The artist they’d tap to design a football jersey

David Shrigley is a big football fan. He’d perfectly capture those timeless feelings of naive and baseless optimism, creeping anxiety, inevitable disappointment, and defiant self-deprecating humor. All of which goes to make up the rich and irreplaceable experience of supporting the England men’s team.

Or, with the Tuchel connection this year: Gerhard Richter. One of the mid-1980s “Abstraktes Bild” squeegee paintings as an all-over print. I’d wear that.

Browse a curated selection of World Cup-themed artworks on Artsy here.

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Rising Artist Holly Lowen’s Hyperrealistic Paintings Tap into Raw Competitive Instinct https://ift.tt/mdT6MNU

Since approximately 1500 B.C.E., chickens have become earth’s most widely domesticated—and abused—creatures. “They live amongst people so easily, but then there’s a tendency in humans to push them into cockfights again, to put them back into their nature,” rising artist Holly Lowen told me in her Tribeca studio, while two paintings of roosters watched on. In one of these works, a lone rooster soars through the air, mid-karate-kick. The other depicts a torrent of the flightless fowl tumbling from nowhere. “What is that about human nature that we’re like, ‘we’ve declawed you entirely, and now we want to see you fight again?’” Lowen mused.

The artist’s latest body of work goes on view this week at Perrotin New York in “Colosseum,” her debut show in the city, on view through July 31st. Her ritzy yet uncanny tennis-core paintings have become her visual calling card. The roosters, however, are new. Both embody Lowen’s interest in competition as a relic of humankind’s wild origins.

Lowen studied art history at Duke, then interior architecture at Parsons, before joining New York–based architecture and design firm Meyer Davis. After giving birth in 2016, however, she started wondering whether she really loved that profession. She ended up realizing her true devotion to art. “To me, art is like an addiction, an affair, something just like a whirlpool of obsession,” Lowen told me in her studio, where she’s worked ever since—an airy, economical room in her family’s Tribeca apartment. “I didn’t think I could find something like that, that would make sense to take time away from the kids.”

Lowen taught herself to paint by first learning how to render subjects hyperrealistically, inspired by Cj Hendry. “I thought if I could get to that level,” Lowen said, “I could do whatever I wanted.” After all, you have to know the rules in order to effectively break them.

Several years into these self-directed studies, “I realized I needed a real MFA,” Lowen continued. “I didn’t feel like I could jump into my conceptual side as deeply without that friction of community, feedback, and critique.” She enrolled at the New York Academy of Art, an alma mater of major contemporary names like Naudline Pierre and Jordan Casteel, situated blocks from Lowen’s home.

There, Lowen became enamored of the compositional motif she calls “entanglement,” inspired by Peter Paul Rubens’s twisting scenes and Édouard Manet’s “strange angles.”

Tennis entered later. Lowen spent high school hooked on the game’s rush. “You're beating someone, and you’re really engaged,” she said. “The feeling is so intense and animalistic, but the actual outside view of it is so preppy and perfect and quiet.” Lowen realized it’s the perfect metaphor for another lifelong love of hers—evolutionary psychology, the study of “how we’re meant to be, or how we were originally made, and clawing our way back to our natural state, versus the rules of civility that have been imposed upon us,” as she put it. Her first-ever exhibition, with Simchowitz Gallery during Frieze Los Angeles 2025, paired paintings of tennis players with paintings of flamingos—birds which look whimsical, but are incredibly tough.

Since then, Lowen has exhibited tennis paintings and scenes of flamingos tied into literal knots alongside the equally buzzy sculptures of Jeffrey Meris with François Ghebaly at New York’s Duet art show. She’s shown with Perrotin several times as well, in the gallery’s group show during last year’s Art Basel Paris, and at its Art Basel Miami Beach booth months later.

Lowen’s solo Perrotin debut, though, will present several new developments in her practice. For starters, this is her most expansive series of large works thus far. Some measure 5-by-5 feet, transforming the act of painting into its own sport—while more readily enveloping viewers. She’s also experimenting with new techniques, painting indirectly (rather than alla prima) by layering water-mixable oil paint over variously hued grounds of acrylic or flatter Flashe vinyl paint. These radiant foundations set the stage for slippery clay courts like the one in The Audience (all works 2026) or delicate grassy ones, as seen in Shared Myth or Dunbar’s Number.

Lowen has started layering her paint with a heavier hand as well, paradoxically producing the lighter wash effects that enhance these works’ dreamy auras. Impeccably clad yet proportionally off-kilter figures emerge. Sometimes they brawl, blurring the line between one and many in Escher-esque arrangements that evoke Eadweard Muybridge’s motion photographs while confounding the rules of tennis, where no more than four players normally take the court. Elsewhere, these athletes rest, recover, even canoodle. Faces remain evasive across the board, unsettling viewers on a primal level. These works remind us that no matter how humanity attempts to dress up its roots, our brains—which evolve much slower than society—still bear our animal nature. The artificial politesse surrounding a game like tennis only thrusts this reality to the fore.

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5 Artists on Our Radar in June 2026 https://ift.tt/Dl3LIz8

Friend zone II, 2026
Marin Majić
NINO MIER GALLERY

“Artists on Our Radar” is a monthly series focused on five artists who have our attention. Utilizing our art expertise and Artsy data, we’ve determined which artists made an impact this past month through new gallery representation, exhibitions, auctions, art fairs, or fresh works on Artsy.

Maya Seas

B. 1991. Lives and works in Los Angeles.

Late May, 2026
Maya Seas
Rajiv Menon Contemporary

Artist Maya Seas creates dreamy worlds where women bathe, rest, and converse, lost in serene reveries. These scenes are inspired, in part, by Indian miniatures. Seas works across an unlikely mash-up of materials, including oil stick, acrylic, charcoal, 24-karat gold, and even molding paste, giving the surfaces of her work textural depth.

“The main emotion I’m always looking for is the feeling of safety,” the artist said in an interview about her work. “If I make something and I feel like it’s not giving me that feeling, or if any of the figures feel like they don’t feel safe, then I destroy it. I won’t let it exist.”

The Los Angeles–based artist’s works were recently included in “Imagining Elsewhere” at Rajiv Menon Contemporary in Los Angeles, a group show that brought together artists exploring landscapes through experiences of fantasy, memory, and desire. Her works were also recently on view in a group show at Half Gallery in New York. In 2023, Seas had a breakthrough debut solo show, “Currents,” at Anna Zorina Gallery in Los Angeles.

Marin Majić

B. 1979, Frankfurt, Germany. Lives and works in New York City.

Negative attention, 2026
Marin Majić
NINO MIER GALLERY

Brooklyn-based artist Marin Majić creates small, atmospheric paintings with iridescent surfaces. The Frankfurt-born Croatian artist layers colored pencil, wax, oil paint, and marble dust to build these luminous fields. Marble dust is employed almost sculpturally, giving the appearance of the traditional metalwork and enamel technique of cloisonné.

The artist’s solo exhibition, “discodisco” is now on view at Nino Mier Gallery in New York through June 13th, marking his third solo exhibition with the gallery. In these works, Majić delves into imagery from the ’70s. Disco balls, lounges, and dancers in the ecstatic release appear through hazy veils of light. In Moving me moving you (2026), for instance, the strobing lights and gyrating bodies on a dance floor are pictured from the perspective of a DJ booth.

Other paintings capture a fantastical natural world. In Negative Attention (2026), a spider web, seemingly made of crystals, glitters in a clearing between tropical-looking plants, against a colorful dawn sky. These sublime visions of nature are reminiscent of the great 19th-century Romantic artists such as Frederic Edwin Church and John Martin, whom Majić admires, and who sought transcendent divinity in the world around them.

Majić’s intimately scaled paintings can feel like portals between worlds, with motifs in one reappearing in others. In these new paintings, a recumbent nude figure, a pair of hands, a pigeon, and a string of pearls reemerge, creating a hypnotic sense of rhythm.

Elif Saydam

B. 1985, Calgary, Canada. Lives and works in Berlin.

Dagger, 2026
Elif Saydam
Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle

Shield (Are you safe), 2026
Elif Saydam
Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle

Artist Elif Saydam makes the mundane mystical. In the Berlin-based artist’s paintings, everyday objects (like wrenches or a candleholder) are rendered in gold leaf and silver leaf, or ornamented with chiffon or nylon, transforming them into precious objects. Saydam’s approaches draw from miniature painting and illuminated manuscript traditions.

Often, their works include snippets of text or comic book elements, and Saydam also experiments with nontraditional materials and bases, including antique bathroom stall doors, anti-shoplifting mirrors, and kitchen sponges. In their current show, “Glory,” on view at Munich’s Galerie Rüdiger Schöttle through July 31st, the artist presents miniature works alongside a new series of larger works in oil, collage, and silver leaf. These new works have a meditative quality, with circular forms acting like little mandalas at their centers.

Su Yu-Xin 苏予昕

B. 1991, Hualien, Taiwan. Lives and works in Los Angeles.

Mountain Quakes and Crumbles in Green and Blue (Danda Mountain, Hualien), 2026
Su Yu-Xin 苏予昕
Albion Jeune

The Birth of a New Color (Mount St. Helens, Washington State), 2026
Su Yu-Xin 苏予昕
Albion Jeune

Los Angeles artist Su Yu-Xin believes painting is a witness to history, shaped by its wars, migrations, invasions, and trade routes. Her works specifically delve into the evolution of pigment from natural material to commercial product. The Taiwan-born artist collects, studies, and processes organic substances—including oyster shells, clam shells, lapis lazuli, and green soil—into pigments which she paints onto flax stretched over frames often formed to unusual shapes.

Her current exhibition, “Afterstone,” a pop-up in Venice during the Biennale hosted by Albion Jeune, features 19 new paintings. In one new work, The Birth of a New Color (Mount St. Helens, Washington State) (2026), the artist works with a pigment made from Helenite, an artificial glass, first made by accident when rock dust from the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens was superheated by salvage workers' torches. Helenite gemstones are now sold as souvenirs in the area and have a greenish hue.

Her materials become an almost geological layering of minerals, organic and synthetic, while her imagery evokes swirling, abstracted seascapes and horizons.

Jane Yang D’Haene

B. 1970, South Korea. Lives and works in New York City.

Untitled, 2026
Jane Yang D’Haene
Bienvenu Steinberg & C

Untitled, 2026
Jane Yang D’Haene
Bienvenu Steinberg & C

Brooklyn-based Korean artist Jane Yang D’Haene creates stoneware vessels that draw from Korean pottery forms, such as the dal hangari, or Korean moon jar. D’Haene melds these traditional forms with bright inflections of color and unexpected textures. Her most recent exhibition, “Love Letter,” her second at Bienvenu Steinberg & C included new porcelain wall works and vessels. In a poem accompanying the show, the artist wrote of her practice, “I don’t know if I chose clay, or if clay chose me. But we still write each other love letters.”

The artist’s fusion of tradition and invention has made her an influential force in the ceramics world. Recently, her works have been acquired by Harvard Art Museums, the Brooklyn Museum, and Sarmaya Arts Foundation, Mumbai. In February 2026, D’Haene was announced as a finalist for the Loewe Foundation Craft Prize.

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Photographer David Yarrow captures Norwegian men’s soccer squad in Viking-themed shoot. https://ift.tt/x2bvITd

Scottish photographer David Yarrow has turned his lens on the Norwegian men’s national soccer team ahead of their appearance at the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Titled The Vikings are Coming (2026), the large-format photograph captures the Norwegian men’s national soccer squad dressed as Viking warriors beside a fjord. It features the full squad—including Manchester City striker Erling Haaland and Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard—posing with longships, weapons, and storm-gray Nordic light. The Viking longships were reportedly sourced by the Norwegian Football Association.

The project has roots in a 2023 solo shoot in which Yarrow photographed Haaland alone, waist-deep in an Oslo fjord, in full Viking dress. Having developed a rapport with the photographer, Haaland pushed for a full squad follow-up as part of Norway’s World Cup preparations. Odegaard, occupied with Arsenal's Champions League final, was photographed separately and composited into the image shortly after.

“If you had to choose one sportsperson in the world that doesn’t need much hair and makeup to look like a Viking, it’s Erling Haaland,” Yarrow told BBC Sport. “And so it was easy to shoot with him.”

Maradona, 1986
David Yarrow
Hilton Contemporary

Yarrow, who first came to prominence with his iconic 1986 photograph of Diego Maradona lifting the World Cup trophy at the Estadio Azteca in Mexico, drew a deliberate parallel to his Ryder Cup shoot last year. In that photograph, Team Europe posed in prohibition-era suits before the Manhattan Bridge, and the work went on to raise over $1 million for Irish charities. The Norway print will fundraise for Norwegian charities and hang at the squad’s World Cup base in Greensboro, North Carolina.

In the interview with the BBC, Yarrow said it was important not to allow any major figure, such as Odegaard and Haaland, to dominate the shoot. “The one thing that was important about that picture,” he said. “In the Norwegian squad, you’ve got someone that’s worth £200 million ($267 million) and [a]goalkeeper that’s worth £250,000 ($333,881)...that they both occupy the same amount of the frame,” he noted.

Yarrow’s prints sell through galleries worldwide, including Hilton Contemporary in Chicago, Maddox Gallery in London, and Carousel Fine Art across the U.S. A selection of prints from the shoot will be exhibited and made available through Yarrow’s gallery partners later this year.

For Norway’s team, the image is a statement of intent. The national team has spent years on the fringes of major tournaments despite boasting a generation of talented players. This is the first World Cup Norway has participated in since 1998.

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How to Buy Manga Art https://ift.tt/xw0C7RQ

ATOM, 2020
Osamu Tezuka
Art in Dongsan

Its most famous characters include the likes of Astro Boy and Naruto Uzumaki, but manga is more than a cast of iconic heroes: It is an art form reaching new heights and fast becoming one of Japan’s fastest-growing cultural exports.

Evolving from serialized comics sold in domestic bookshops into a globally read medium with major franchises, manga is forecast to grow to a market value of $42 billion by 2029, according to a recent trade report. What was once a niche import is now the fourth-largest fiction category in the U.S.

Increasingly, this interest is filtering into the art market, as recent auction results have shown.

In March 2026, Christie’s held its first sale combining classical Japanese art with works rooted in subcultural movements. Titled “Anime Starts Here,” the sale included original manga drawings by Osamu Tezuka, anime cels from the 1984 film Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind and vintage film posters of Godzilla. Also featured were works by contemporary artists such as Yoshitomo Nara and woodblock prints by Katsushika Hokusai.

The results were staggering, totaling 407% above the low estimate. Some 90% of lots sold, with 36% of buyers entirely new to Christie’s. “It significantly outperformed my initial expectations,” said Takaaki Murakami of the Asian art department at Christie’s.

Notably, some 35% of buyers were either Millennials or Gen Z, mirroring a shift seen by gallerists such as Eunha Chung, director of Art in Dongsan, which represents Japanese manga artist Sango Morimoto in Korea. “A new generation of collectors has grown up within a wide spectrum of visual culture—manga, animation, film, gaming, and fashion.”

The current market for manga art spans original manuscript pages, limited-edition prints, and manga-informed contemporary works, providing entry points for collectors and newcomers alike.

The following guide breaks down everything you need to know to get started.

What is manga?

Manga is an umbrella term for Japanese comic books, most commonly printed in black-and-white with a right-to-left reading format. Targeting all age groups, the medium covers almost every genre imaginable, from romance and fantasy to teen fiction, comedy, and horror. Manga is an umbrella term for Japanese comic books, most commonly printed in black-and-white with a right-to-left reading format. Targeting all age groups, the medium covers almost every genre imaginable, from romance and fantasy to teen fiction, comedy, and horror.

The origins of manga stretch back to 12th-century picture scrolls, designed to be read from right to left—just as manga is today. However, it was during the Edo period (1603–1868) that illustrated fiction truly took root. Cheap, woodblock-printed storybooks known as kibyōshi were produced for the masses, and the word ‘manga’ itself (roughly translating to ‘pictures made freely’) first entered the art lexicon in 1814, when Hokusai used the term to title a series of assorted sketches.

Eight Views of Ryukyu – Clearing Weather After Rain at Nagahashi/琉球八景: 長虹秋霽, 1832
Katsushika Hokusai
Aura Gallery

Following the Second World War and the rise of post-war artists like Osamu Tezuka (1928–1989), creator of Astro Boy and today known as the “god of manga,” the medium found its place as the mass cultural phenomenon we know today.

The 1980s and ’90s saw a golden age of manga, spawning some of today’s most-read series. These include the likes of One Piece, which has printed a weekly issue to this day since 1997.

How can collectors find manga art?

Although manga is a mass-produced product, with series published weekly and consumed at a pace, the medium offers original works of serious artistic value.

These are becoming increasingly available at auction houses and commercial galleries such as Art in Dongsan, Galerie Jacob Paulett, and Micheko Galerie that specialize in art informed by manga in aesthetics or subject matter.

According to Murakami of Christie’s, the value of original manga art is determined by a combination of factors: the significance of the artist, the subject depicted, the rarity of the volume, and the condition of the work, along with provenance, edition size, and where a piece sits within a series or publication history.

It is essentially the same evaluative framework applied to prints, photography, and most works on paper.

Where manga diverges slightly is in the value placed on source materials. Drawings carry an authenticity that reproductions—however high in quality—simply cannot replicate. This can make them more expensive. “Original works inherently carry a unique value, and this principle applies equally to manga art,” said Murakami. “This helps explain the growing recognition of manga as a legitimate art form, as collectors increasingly value not only the imagery, but also the physical presence and authenticity of the original work.”

What you can currently buy on the market breaks down broadly into the following categories:

• Genga (hand drawings): Original manuscript drawings, often marked with corrections, studio stamps, or the artist’s annotations.
• Splash pages: Original drawings of full or double-page spreads for the most dramatic moments in a story. These are among the most ambitious and compositionally striking pages of a manga.
• Sketches: Character studies or compositional roughs.
• Promotional posters: Theatrical and promotional posters for manga and its anime adaptations.
• Artist-made prints: Limited-run prints made by manga artists, separate from publisher-produced merchandise.
• Fine art informed by manga: Work by artists who draw on manga aesthetics but operate within the gallery and auction system.

Understanding manga art in the contemporary art world

What’s Going On? (In the Floating World), 1999
Yoshitomo Nara
Upsilon Gallery

Bouquet in a Basket, 2024
Takashi Murakami
Baldwin

Recognized contemporary artists such as Nara and Takashi Murakami draw from manga aesthetics and have long commanded serious critical and commercial attention. What is new is the breadth of that influence and the growing number of galleries representing artists who work in this territory.

Munich-based Micheko Galerie specializes in Japanese contemporary art, and its co-founder, Keiko Tanaka, noted cases where fine art collectors notice manga-like expressions in works and develop an interest in them. “This shift occurs within the context of a deepening understanding of Japanese visual culture as a whole,” she said, “rather than stemming from a specific interest in manga.”

New Love Plan #18, 2013
Ai Kijima
Micheko Galerie

The rising appetite for manga-informed aesthetics, she suggests, is better understood as a broader reevaluation of a visual culture that has historically been treated as peripheral. Only now is it being reconsidered within a wider art-historical frame.

Still, Tanaka cautions about the limitations of the Western gaze. “We still see curators who are interested in recent Japanese contemporary art primarily because they are drawn to the ‘Cool Japan’ image, and who view the entire subject only very superficially—often with a certain underlying arrogance,” she said. “The fact that Japan also has a centuries-old tradition in the arts is overlooked or simply ignored.”

Pandasan 57-57 : Midnight Blooms in Tokyo Shadows, 2010
Hiro Ando
Galerie Jacob Paulett

Stephane A. Cohen of Japanese Neo-Pop specialist Galerie Jacob Paulett agrees. “Manga was an art form long before becoming the popular culture medium we know today,” he said, pointing out that through history, Japan has sustained a cultural ecosystem that simultaneously nurtures elite art alongside popular art for the masses.

As a result of these considerations, first-time buyers should approach manga art as part of a larger visual history rather than a contemporary trend. Looking beyond recognizable characters and blockbuster franchises and further back into its history can also open up a deeper understanding of the artistic lineages at play.

As both Tanaka and Cohen suggest, manga belongs to a broader continuum of Japanese image-making, where distinctions between pop culture and fine art have historically been more fluid than many Western audiences assume.

The golden rule for buying manga art

Astro Boy Anime Production Cel 鉄腕アトム (アニメ第2作), 1980s
Astro Boy
Tinny Art House

When asking for advice for first-time buyers, every gallerist and specialist returned the same answers: Follow your heart over anything else.

“In 99% of cases, there won’t be any increase in value—so buy what you love,” said Tanaka. Murakami echoes her advice: “Always ask yourself if you genuinely like the artwork.”

As for Cohen, “My advice to all buyers remains the same: let your heart speak. And if your heart has been nourished by manga culture for years, then even better.”

New collectors should spend time with the medium. Visit exhibitions, follow specialist galleries, study the history, and learn the distinctions between original drawings, prints, and manga-informed contemporary art.

As the market continues to evolve, knowledge will sharpen instincts, but ultimately, the work worth buying is always the pieces you are intuitively drawn to, whether that’s a favorite character or fresh discovery.

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