Juxtapoz, Hi-Fructose and the "Hip" Aesthetic

I don't know if anyone else reads these magazines, but I was perusing a copy of my room mate's Juxtapoz subscription the other day and it struck me that everything I see in that magazine, as well as Hi-Fructose, and much of the art in galleries around Los Angeles has a very similar aesthetic.
I think it is best described by a hyper-realistic, fantasy. Many of the works seem to be influenced by surrealist notions of strangeness and images of dreams. Another noticeable aspect in this art seems to be its appropriation of child-like imagery. Much of the work I see in Juxtapoz plays off the idea of toys, dolls, cuteness, or imagination- but retools those images to become a sort of hallucination, often strange and disturbing. The images to the left and bottom are by Los Angeles artist Mark Ryden.
















Here is another example of a painting by Ron English and a sculpture by Eric Althin that stays true to this aesthetic in a different medium.


I wonder if the hyper-realism so prevalent in some of these artists has to do with new computer technology, as I see increasingly more of them turning to digital imaging to either create, or inspire their works.







Many of these artists are also interesting in the sort of hip, underground, street scene of Los Angeles and other big cities. I see a lot of influence from that world, from skateboarding and graffiti art.





I know there is a market for this type of work, with hip stores like Giant Robot popping up all over the place. Just the other weekend I went into a gallery downtown that doubled as a skate shop/ tattoo parlor, and believe it or not it was crowded. Artists popular in these magazines also have no qualms about slapping their work on T-shirt or sneakers, or churning out some cute key chains or stuffed animals. In terms of the consumerism and "cute", yet hip aesthetic, Takashi Murakami could be included in this group of artists, though he more than any other has experienced wild success.

Does this aesthetic have any place in the art historical trajectory of post-modernism and beyond? I do not know if critics take this type of work seriously, or if as of yet it has remained ensconced in a counter-culture commercialism.