Smoking a cigarette on a balcony overlooking the green fields of Kenya’s Rift Valley, South Korean art collector Juno Lee surveys the works hanging before him.
He has just agreed to buy two of the bright graphic tableaux painted by Joseph Bertiers, a Kenyan artist whose satirical paintings include global celebrities such as boxer Mike Tyson and late Venezuelan president Hugo Chávez. Chickens wander about the metal feet of his outsize sculptures at his rural home-come-studio.
Mr Lee, a businessman and martial arts expert in a dapper powder-blue jacket and slicked back hair, is among a new wave of international buyers trying to boost the profile of African art. “African art is now getting more attention from Korean, Japanese collectors – I want to see the east African art market boom,” says Mr Lee, who lives between Nairobi and Seoul and set up his own gallery, Africafe, in Seoul.