Ahn first gained attention in the global art scene in 1989 when he was awarded the Special Jury Prize at the Cagnes International Painting Festival, and is the only artist to have won the Inseong Lee Art Prize in 2009 and the Doublesup Art Prize in 2013. His works are in the collections of major museums in Korea and abroad, including the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Seoul Museum of Art, and Busan Museum of Art.

The series Amaranth, a flower that never wilts, implicitly expresses a wistful reverence for nature and the life force contained within it. Through his paintings of flowers and nature, Ahn expresses his appreciation for nature and his view of the world. His paintings do not merely reproduce the appearance of nature and beautiful flowers, but also implicitly express the life force and metaphors of life and death.