[On the evening of 23 June, I was watching the late news. Near the end of the broadcast, there was a report of a young artist who made a stir last December at Art Miami, a gigantic art fair, attracting the attention of a lot of art enthusiasts and professionals. He was 10-year-old Andres Valencia, and he was just opening his first solo exhibit at a SoHo gallery here in New York City.
[The report showed some of Valencia’s paintings and snippets of interviews with the little artist, who had just finished fourth grade at his San Diego public school. The art was astounding—colorful, bold, abstract—and the painter was poised and articulate.
[My attention was piqued. Readers of Rick On Theater will know that I have an abiding interest in art; there are dozens of articles on this blog covering the subject. (The last one was a tribute to artist Sam Gilliam, who died at 88 on 25 June. It was posted on 2 July.) I was intrigued enough to look into Valencia and his art—and below is the result of that excursion.
[P.S. My being intrigued grew into being impressed.]
Andres Valencia (b. 1 October 2011) is an artist from San Diego, California, known for large, dramatic, colorful figurative paintings that are deeply influenced by George Condo (b. 1957), a
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| Andres Valencia in his studio, surrounded by some of his paintings |
Teachers in his San Diego public school Visual and Performing Arts (VAPA) program quickly identified his extraordinary talent. Surrounded by art at home, Valencia is inspired by RETNA (né Marquis Lewis, 1979), a contemporary artist primarily recognized for his graffiti art; Richard Hambleton (1952-2017), a Canadian painter known for his work as a street artist; Raphael Mazzucco (b. 1965), a Canadian-born fashion, art, and music photographer; Salvador Dalí (1904-89), a Spanish surrealist; and other artists his father began collecting in about 2015.
Young Valencia has collaborated with Bradley Theodore, a New York-based former street artist born around 1991 in Turks and Caicos, known for his colorful paintings and prints; Mazzucco, RETNA, and RISK (Kelly Graval, b. 1967), a Los Angeles-based graffiti artist, and cites Condo as his favorite living artist.
Alongside Condo, Picasso is Valencia’s most visible influence. When I first heard a TV news report about Andres Valencia, however, and began looking at online reproductions of his paintings—before I saw his art in person—I quickly spotted what I thought were resonances of Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-88), the American former street artist of Puerto Rican and Haitian heritage.
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| Collaboration with Raphael Mazzucco |
When I saw his art live on the day before Independence Day, I noticed many of the canvases incorporated drips and spatters. I wasn’t sure if they were intentional or had just happened while the little artist was working and he just decided to leave them.
But later, when I was looking at some videos of Valencia painting, I noticed he deliberately made the drips, and then I saw him spatter paint on parts of a finished picture. ‘That’s Pollock,’ I said to myself, not having read so far that Jackson Pollock (1912-56), the Abstract Expressionist famous for his “drip technique” in his action paintings, was an artist of interest to the young painter.
On the 10th, seven days after I first noticed the drips, I read Portray Magazine’s interview with the artist from 2021, and I found this exchange:
And so you had mentioned that you like Picasso; who else?
Well, I like Pollock, Georges Braque. I also like Francis Bacon, Dali, and George Condo, which I like a lot!
That’s the one and only reference to Pollock I’ve found, but it comes right from the little colt’s mouth, so I credit it.
Gazing for hours at a painting in his home, Brimstone (2013) by RETNA, whom his attorney father represents, Valencia began copying it over and over to hone his skills. He’s entirely self-taught so far, though he’s said he’d like to get an art teacher soon.
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| Dalila (2021); note drips and spatters |
The young artist also studies art history and has read books about Picasso, Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853-90), Basquiat, and many other important artists. Among these are Georges Braque (French, 1882-1963), who, with Picasso, conceived of Cubism in France between 1906 and 1908.
Through his study, he’s developed an interest in a wide range of artists such as Van Gogh, Gerhard Richter (German, b. 1932), Amedeo Modigliani (Italian, 1884-1920), Francis Bacon (British, 1909-92), and Michelangelo (Buonarroti; Italian, 1475-1564), among others. In an interview, the little artist affirmed:
I am most inspired by Pablo Picasso and George Condo, Van Gough [sic] and Francis Bacon. But there are many others that I have learned from such as Richter Gephart [sic; Gerhard Richter?], Retna, Raphael Mazzucco and of course, Dali. I love to read about artist[s] and watch movies about their lives. Braque is something that my mom and I have learned about together.
Valencia’s been painting since he was about 5 years old. Some sources say it began when he watched a video on Basquiat. He told his father: “I can do that.” Soon, he was doing it!
(Coincidentally, I came to art the same way. I made abstract collages as a child, inspired by Robert Keyser [1924-91], a collagist whose work was being shown at the small art gallery in which my parents had an interest. At Keyser’s vernissage, which took place at our house at the end of November 1958—when I was just about to turn 12—we placed some of his work around the living room.
(I was helping to position the collages and I said aloud, “I can do that.” A guest who was a friend of my parents challenged me, “Do it, and I’ll buy what you make.” I went to my room, made a collage out of construction paper cut-outs, and brought it back down to the living room.
(The man asked me what I thought the collage was worth, and I calculated the cost of the materials. I told him 50¢, all of about $5 today. I never became an artist, but I became a lifelong art-appreciator as a result of hanging around art and artists at a very impressionable time in my life. [I recount this experience in “Gres Gallery,” posted on Rick On Theater on 7-13 July 2018.])
Young Valencia started with small works on paper using acrylic markers and progressed to canvases twice his size, asking his parents for more professional materials. The tyro painter’s mother recounted:
When the state was getting ready to implement stay-at-home rules [19 March 2020; schools closed on 13 March] due to the COVID-19 my husband rushed to an art store and purchased art supplies and for the first time we purchased big canvases. We told Andres that art and sculpting would be part of his curriculum. He did not seem to mind at all since he spends all day just doing that.
Both Andres’s father, Guadalupe, and his mother, Elsa, a psychologist and jewelry-maker, are Mexican-Americans and the fourth-grader speaks fluent Spanish. (Some of his paintings have Spanish-language titles.) The parents quicky recognized that their son’s painting was extraordinary and encouraged and sustained his efforts by buying him paint, brushes, and canvases. They still want him just to enjoy painting, however.
The embryonic artist’s mother recalls:
I would sit by him when he was painting and in one minute he would sketch or paint something unique. He never painted your normal face with two eyes a nose and mouth. I would ask him, “why did you do that” and he would say[,] “I don’t know. It just came to me.” I immediately realized that his art was different. I never asked “why” again. I couldn’t wait to sit by him to see what was next.
“To be quite honest, we try not to talk too much about it in front of him,” the boy’s father told the London Times. “We certainly don’t refer to him as a prodigy or anything like that. We just keep it simple with him. At home, he just does his art.”
“By the time he turned 8,” explained Elsa Valencia, “I realized that his Art [sic] was very special and his passion to create was not that of a normal child.” His parents support their son’s unique gift and give him the freedom to express himself through his art.
“The characters that I create,” explains Valencia, “are always disfigured with face parts in unusual places.” They’re sort of a mix of Surrealism, Cubism, and Abstraction—but with a lot of “Valencianism” overlaying the figures.
“I don’t sketch or plan my works; they just start at a certain place and end in something that makes people smile. . . . I never know what I am going to create when I start a painting, it just comes to me.”
“I usually start with the nose and move on to the eye,” the young artist revealed when asked how he starts a painting. “[T]he nose is the thing that interests me the most [’]cause I do it differently.”
The boy artist painted in his room, his parents’ room, or the living room “until the paint was just everywhere,” his mother recalls; then they created a studio for him in their basement. “I make a big mess with my paint,” says Valencia.
Though his parents resisted at first when some of their friends encouraged them to create an Instagram page for Andres, after a while, they acquiesced and found the response tremendous. “We initially started posting only his completed works and after many people asking if his parent[s] were helping, we decided to videotape the entire process,” explained the artist’s mother. “We soon realized that people really enjoyed watching his videos and the response was amazing.”
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| The early years: a very young Andres Valencia at his art |
(Oil sticks are oil paint manufactured with enough wax for the paint to be molded into stick form. They allow the painter to draw or paint directly onto a surface without brushes, palettes, paint tubes, or solvents. Oil sticks can be used in combination with traditional oil paints; they were popularized in the 1980s by such artists as Basquiat and became common in contemporary oil painting in recent years.)
“I like acrylic paint,” specifies the preteen painter.
Sometimes I use oil paint. Oil paint makes it look professional like the Mona Lisa, but oil paint is kinda hard to work with; you need special kinds of brushes. It smells really bad and can give you a headache, and it takes so long to dry. I still have some paintings in the basement that I’ve drawn like months ago, and it’s still not even close to drying.
The tyro artist says he’s drawn to artists for their unique styles. “I like how [Francis Bacon] does the mouths,” he observes, for example, and also finds Gerhard Richter’s “use of paint has been fun to watch. His works have inspired some of my own.”
He’s eager to visit the Louvre Museum in Paris to view Leonardo da Vinci’s (Italian, 1452-1519) Mona Lisa. The 10-year-old isn’t reticent about his desire to become a world-famous artist: asked in an online question-and-answer session when he was only 8 what he wanted to be when he grows up, he answered simply, “An artist and a musician.” Of his primary goal, he said, “I just want the world to know my work.”
Valencia is candid, casual, and relaxed about creating his art. He doesn’t plan them in advance and he doesn’t always make sketches for a design or theme that he wants. Instead, he “just go[es] for it,” letting inspiration guide the painting to what it becomes.
He often does begin with small sketches, but lets his creative force take over once he begins work on a canvas, relying on his color wheel to guide him. He told the Miami Herald, “I paint in little pieces. I work on it for an hour or two. Then I go do something else. I come back to it the next day and keep adding more . . . . You can express your feelings and stuff on canvas."
An extraordinarily productive and energetic artist, Valencia works in his home studio every day. Ideas sometimes strike him as he’s about to go to sleep, and he’ll get out of bed at 10 p.m. to paint, often working on several canvases at a time.
His ideas often come “[w]hen I’m eating, or almost nighttime,” says the pint-sized painter. He adds, “Sometimes I have dreams of art and sometimes other artists inspire me. I draw a sketch and just keep adding and then it becomes something.”
He says he finishes about two paintings each day and it takes him from one day to three or four to complete a work. Some paintings take longer, and the incipient artist does have unfinished canvases in his studio that he returns to from time to time over longer periods.
According to a profile in Forbes magazine, “Sometimes he paints in silence, other times he listens to a wide array of music including The Beatles, The Sugarhill Gang, Run DMC, the Beastie Boys, The Animals, and James Brown.” Says Valencia, “I love music.” Some of his other music idols are Chuck Berry, Bob Marley, Freddie Mercury, Prince, and Stevie Wonder.
When an interviewer wondered how a boy from Generation Alpha was introduced to Chuck Berry (1926-2017), Valencia gave an explanation that revealed a surprise about the youngster that sets him apart from many of his peers: he reads books (not just graphic novels or online texts) and frequents libraries.
There are so many books in the school library, and I went to the “Who was” section and found a [book on] Bob Dylan. It said that Chuck Berry was one of Bob Dylan’s favorite musicians, so I looked him up, and he became one of mine!
Asked what he does when he’s not painting, Valencia responds: “I like to sculpt when I’m not painting.”
“When I was little, I would watch my mom sculpt,” explained the fledgling artist, “and I wanted to do that. Then one day, we got some clay, and I started human faces. I do regular faces, realism with clay, and I do abstract cubism on canvases.”
I have sculpted James Brown, Chuck Berry and others. I have been playing the piano since the age of 6, and [I’m] currently learning how to play the guitar. I like watching movies about the Holocaust, the Civil Rights movement and movies about my favorite musicians. The leader of all is Chuck Berry, followed by the Beatles.
There’s also a photo of Valencia’s art materials showing a group of clay dolls representing the Simpson family from the Matt Groening animated TV series.
Fear not, though. Alongside his prodigious talent and drive as an artist, he’s still a 10-year-old kid. Some of his subjects are cartoon characters, like Goofy and the Simpsons. He also plays outdoors with his friends after school, he collects action figures, and he watches TV. His mom still drives him to a toy store between interviews. And he cleans up his own messes and paint-stained clothes.
The youngster admitted in the 2020 Q&A when he was 8 that the super power he’d like to have is “[t]o be able to disappear and go wherever I want.” He likes cake and chocolate ice cream, and though his favorite movie at the time was Harriet, a 2019 biopic about 19th-century abolitionist Harriet Tubman, his favorite cartoon was Garfield. His message to the world? “Be nice and read books.”
The difference between Valencia and his fourth-grade peers is that after school and some outdoor fun and then homework, they mostly play video games or chat with their friends on social media sites. Valencia goes to his studio and paints, or he reads about art and artists, or he watches art videos.
Donnalynn Patakos, founder and editor-in-chief of Portray Magazine, a quarterly periodical of art, culture, and luxury, sees Andres Valencia as an example of those people “who, from a very young age, become naturally drawn to something and through their unwavering dedication to it, become exceptional at whatever that may be,” whether it be science or, as in Valencia’s case, art, or some other field.
At the young age of ten he’s had enormous success attracting the attention of the press and collectors from around the world. His paintings have been bought by several celebrities like music executive Tommy Mottola; actors Brooke Shields and Channing Tatum; Thalía, the Mexican singer, songwriter, actress, writer, and businesswoman; Logan Paul, a YouTuber and social media personality; professional boxer Ryan Garcia; and American artist Shepard Fairey, who designed Barack Obama’s “Hope” poster for the 2008 presidential campaign.
During Art Miami 2021 (30 November-5 December), he was featured on Good Morning America (ABC News, 3 December 2021), and many other significant news outlets globally. (I caught a report on the young painter on News 4 NY at 11, the late-night news broadcast on WNBC in New York City, on Thursday night, 23 June, the day the SoHo exhibit opened. There was also a report on Sunday, the 26th, on WNBC’s “News 4 Latino,” a feature of Sunday Today in New York at 10 in the morning.)
The young artist became the sensation of Art Miami 2021 and Miami Art Week, the citywide event that surrounds the fair, the city’s oldest (the first Art Miami fair was in 1990; not to be confused with Art Basel Miami Beach, first introduced in 2002, which also convenes in early December). His entire body of art works sold out for from $5,000 to $20,000 on the opening night of Art Miami. Artists, gallerists, and celebrities flowed to the Chase Contemporary booth occupied by Valencia and his work to see this phenomenon, followed by the general public.
Valencia is the youngest artist in the fair’s history to have his own booth at Art Miami. This was also the first time the 10-year-old had offered his work to the public for sale. The period of December 2021 through June 2022 has been one of several firsts for the young painter, as you’ll see below.
The surge of journalists and art enthusiasts made it necessary for the fair to put up a security cordon around the Chase Contemporary gallery space. But the boy handled it all with aplomb and poise far beyond his preteen years.
Nick Korniloff, CEO of Art Miami, who selected Valencia as an exhibiting artist in Art Miami 2021, described the artist and his work as “extraordinary,” “prodigy,” and “unique,” and declared of the youngster: “He is a normal child, a beautiful child, with great personality and creativity.” It doesn’t hurt that he’s also as cute as a 10-year-old boy can be, with the kind of self-assurance, and an unmistakable portion of boyishness, that makes him a magnet for TV and video.
The art prodigy painted live at the Art Miami fair, surrounded by people eager to meet him and capture him on video. He also painted with Caribbean artist Bradley Theodore in a sort of paint-off. When Agencia EFE, the Spanish news agency, asked the preteen “if he had just painted it better,” referring to the shared canvas, he didn’t hesitate to answer “Yes.” He also says he’s not nervous painting in front of lots of people—but, then, he’s had a lot of practice in those videos his parents have posted of him at work.
The young artist’s profits from Art Miami sales went to the Perry J. Cohen Foundation, which supports the arts; environmental, marine and wildlife education and preservation; teenage entrepreneurship; and boating-safety education. (The foundation is named in honor of Korniloff’s 14-year-old stepson who was lost at sea during a fishing expedition with a friend in 2015. Neither boy has been found.)
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| Valencia holding the print edition of Ms. Cube |
In addition to his other activities and interests, Andres Valencia is dedicated to philanthropy and earmarks his proceeds for various charities. Chase Contemporary SoHo, the exclusive representative of Valencia’s work, proclaims: “The artist has a social conscience.” The boy artist has committed a new work to be auctioned on 30 July at the LuisaViaRoma x UNICEF Summer Gala, a night dedicated to children in emergency.
Valencia also has heroes outside the art and music worlds, such as Harriet Tubman and Martin Luther King, Jr., and they bespeak his enduring interest in helping others. “They helped a lot of people,” says the youngster, “and we can’t forget them. I have read books about them and have watched all of the movies I could find.”
The artist’s success continued into this year, as all his paintings at Art Palm Beach in March 2022 sold in one day. Profiles of Valencia were recently published in Forbes magazine (Natasha Gural, 3 June 2022 at Ten-Year-Old Prodigy Andres Valencia Evokes George Condo, Picasso, In Vibrant Paintings, Including Visceral Contemporary ‘Guernica’ Confronting Invasion Of Ukraine (forbes.com)) and the London Times (Keiran Southern, “Little Picasso takes art world by storm,” 8 June 2022).
Valencia made his international auction début on 21 June at Phillips Hong Kong’s Day Sale of 20th Century & Contemporary Art & Design, when the original Ms. Cube (2020) painting, used for his first limited-edition print run, went on the auction block. It was estimated to bring between $25,600 and $51,300, but was knocked down at $160,000, more than triple its highest estimate. (A portion of the proceeds went to Box of Hope, a charity dedicated to providing educational gifts to underprivileged children in Hong Kong and Asia.)
[I’ve
divided my profile of 10-year-old artist Andres Valencia into two parts for
easier reading. If you’ve found this
first half intriguing, as I hope you have, you will find Part 2, to be posted
on Wednesday, 20 July, equally so.
Please come back to ROT in three days to the conclusion to my discussion of the young
phenomenon. Among other topics, I will
cover the current exhibit at Chase Contemporary and some of Valencia’s works on
display there.]
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