Andres Valencia, 10-Year-Old Artist, Part 2

 

[This is the conclusion of my profile of preteen artist Andres Valencia, the continuation of Part 1, which was posted on 17 July.  (Of you haven’t read the first part of the profile, I strongly recommend that you do so before reading Part 2, below.  It’ll make a lot more sense if you do.)

[In the second part of the post, I continue my look at Valencia’s painting style and his motivation.  Then I discuss the art he exhibits in his first solo gallery show at Chase Contemporary in New York City’s SoHo (which runs through tomorrow).]

Andres Valencia (2nd R), his father Lupe Valencia (L), 

sister Atiana Valencia (2nd L), and mother Elsa Valencia 

at No Rules opening reception on 23 June.

(Photo by Michael Loccisano/Getty Images)

The young artist’s first solo exhibition opened at Chase Contemporary’s SoHo gallery in New York City (413 W. Broadway; 212-337-3203; info@chasecontemporary.com) on 23 June.  Entitled No Rules, “reflecting the artist’s experimental approach to painting as much as his belief that creativity is unbounded and great art can be produced at any age by any artist,” the show of over 30 paintings created by the artist during the last two years runs until 21 July.  Small canvases begin at $15,000 and larger ones range from $40,000 to $50,000. 

Among the works on display in No Rules is the invented character of Alberto the Clown (2021), which will be Valencia’s second work to be rendered as a print.  Prints of Ms. Cube are on display in the SoHo show as well (all 100 copies are sold out).  (I walked down to SoHo on Sunday afternoon, 3 July, to see Valencia’s art in person.  I’ll comment on the experience later.) 

Valencia is a phenomenon not just because he’s in the fourth grade, however.  His work is stunning, not least because he’s self-taught.  His self-education in art hasn’t failed him, either, it seems—even though he’s said he’d like to get a teacher. 

The neophyte painter explains that he’s developed his skills by copying the same painting over and over again, as he did with the RETNA mentioned earlier.  Asked if his skills had gotten better since he first put brush to canvas, Valencia observed, “Well, I just keep trying till I get it right.”  He’s a pretty good judge of his own skill level!

For now, artists like Basquiat, Picasso, Modigliani, Dalí, Condo, and the others he admires have been his teachers.  He examines something they do in their creative process—from his reading about them, or the videos he watches, or the art he sees in person—and applies it to his own work, makes it his own, and adds it to his palette of techniques. 

“One time I just kept trying to paint something, and it took night[s] and nights until I finally got it,” explained Valencia.  “I just kept practicing.  I didn’t give up.”  Later, he observed, “When I was little, I thought that Picasso did that triangle nose and, I thought I’d try it and, and then I looked him up, and he wouldn’t do that.  So I took it as my own style.”  (See, for example, Valencia’s paintings Van Gogh [in profile], 2020; The Scientist [profile], 2021; Max the Clown, 2022.)

Little by little, his paintings cease to be noticeably Picassoesque, but an amalgam of several styles and influences reminiscent of Basquiat or Condo, and eventually, a uniquely Valencia artwork with echoes of those who went before.  He’s still somewhere between stages two and three now, but each canvas shows movement toward his own . . . well, voice is the only word I can think of to use.  Indeed, Chase Contemporary, the gallery that represents him, proclaims, “Valencia paints in a style . . . which is entirely his own.”

Looking at his paintings, watching him work on videos, hearing him talk about his work, it’s clear Andres Valencia knows what he’s doing.  It’s not haphazard, it’s not accidental—he’s in control of both his ideas and his method, even as he lets inspiration take him.

Valencia’s parents and others, including artist Raphael Mazzucco and Perry J. Cohen Foundation CEO (and wife of Nick Korniloff) Pamela Cohen, have said he’s an “old soul” because so many of the artists who inspire him and the musicians to whom he likes to listen are from the (sometimes distant) past.  If they mean he’s a mature soul, I think there’s also evidence in his art. 

Art Miami director Korniloff is charged with ensuring that “the quality of the works exhibited is high and the artists respected.”  When Chase Contemporary proposed Andres Valencia, the fair’s director didn’t hesitate to accept the fourth-grader as an exhibiting artist.

The artworks in No Rules, the Chase Contemporary show in SoHo, are all from 2021 and 2022.  Though there are differences among the canvases, the same level of skill and execution is evident.  Most of the paintings are Valencia’s figurative pieces, many of them portraits of people he knows, though quite a few are fictional characters he invented.

I was curious to see what his older works looked like, to see if the development of his style was visible.  One of the several websites online that display Valencia’s pictures was by a woman who first encountered the young artist when he was an 8-year-old second-grader.  There are many photos of the incipient artist’s work from 2019 and 2020.

The contrast is quite striking.  It’s still possible to see that they were made by the same artist, but the 8- and 9-year-old’s paintings were less refined, rougher, less detailed that the 10-year-old’s art is.  He became surer of himself and more in control of what he’s putting on the canvas. 

This tells me he’s developing and not just repeating what he did when he was starting his artistic journey.  He’s learning, teaching himself new techniques to make clearer what he wants to say.  In an interview last August, a 9-year-old Andres Valencia was asked if his technique had improved over the preceding year, and he replied confidently, “Every day it gets better and better.”  And older, more experienced heads agree.

Though Valencia’s work is mostly innocent and joyful, he’s clearly not timid about hard subject matter.  In that same 2021 interview, the rising fourth-grader said his favorite painting was Picasso’s 1937 anti-war painting, Guernica.  (I wonder if younger Andres Valencia could have made that statement.  In the earlier Q&A, he said that in his bedroom, he’d like to have Salvador Dalí’s The Persistence of Memory [“The Soft Watches”]—still an advanced taste, but a gentler vision.)

Picasso’s Guernica

Now, Guernica’s a large (11'5½" x 25'5½") and complex painting, but when the interviewer asked Valencia if he thought he’d ever make such a big piece, he responded that he was working on one at that very time, a wall-sized painting.

Starting in March 2022, a month and a day after Russian forces invaded Ukraine, Valencia began painting a picture called Invasion of Ukraine, débuting in the Chase Contemporary show.  (His is 4' x 5'.  It’s also highly colored, like all of Valencia’s work; Guernica is black, white, and grey.)  It’s a stunning and powerful evocation of the atrocity that is the Russo-Ukrainian war.  Coming from the mind and brush of a 10-year-old, it’s astonishing.

I don’t think I could live with the painting in my home, but in the gallery, I stood before it—several times, as I kept returning to it—utterly captivated by the horrific imagery as well as the obvious care and concern with which Valencia imbued it.  (Not stylistically, but with respect to its emotional and psychological undertone, Invasion reminds me very palpably of some of David Wojnarowicz’s grittier works.  See my posts “David Wojnarowicz,” 15 March 2011; “David Wojnarowicz (1954-92)” in “Words with Pictures / Pictures with Words,” 16 September 2014; and “History Keeps Me Awake At Night,” 19 October 2018)

By the way, the artist understands what he’s wrought.  Forbes reports that after he’d finished a 12-by-9-inch colored sketch of the painting, a study for the final work, Valencia turned to his mother “and asked if [Russian President Vladimir] Putin would do ‘something’ to him.”

I said “no, he won’t do anything to you.  Why do you think he would do something to you?” I asked him.  He said, “because when Picasso painted Guernica, [Spanish dictator Generalisimo Francisco] Franco was not happy about it and they wanted to hurt Picasso.”

Invasion of Ukraine (2022) 

The young artist then went to sketch out the large version of the final work on the full-sized canvas.  When he’d finished the outline, he explained the whole painting to his mother, section by section.  Natasha Gural, the Forbes writer, provides this description of Invasion:

A wide eye weeps onto a Ukrainian flag emblazoned with a broken heart and bullet casings, drawing our gaze to the upper left of a monumental canvas.  Symbolism and Surrealism collide as distressed and distorted Cubist figures—one brandishing an enormous assault rifle that commands the center of the boldly colored painting—expose the dread and terror of war.  

Discussing Invasion with the Forbes writer, Valencia, who, alongside his study of art and artists is an avid student of history, asserts, “I think that art tells stories and I am telling the story of the Ukrainian people and what Russia is doing to them.  My painting is telling a story that can not [sic] be forgotten.”

There’s a YouTube video of the artist creating the full-scale edition of the painting (Andres Valencia - Invasion of Ukraine - YouTube).  In it, we don’t see Valencia ever consult a sketch, but the video is a composite of more than one painting session, as the artist is seen in a half dozen changes of clothes over time.

Invasion of Ukraine will be made into a print edition of 500.  All proceeds from the prints, priced at $1,000 each, will be donated directly to the Klitschko Foundation, a charity that supports the children of Ukraine.

Right now, most of Valencia’s works have a similarity to one another, but they aren’t all identical.  Some pieces at the SoHo gallery are more Basquiat than Picasso—he actually has two pieces called Homage to Basquiat (both from 2021).  His reading about art and artists ranges from Renaissance to mid-century modern to current, so I suspect he’ll broaden his base as he gains experience with varied painters.

If he does go with a teacher, either at an art school or privately, I imagine that she or he’ll guide him into a broader palette, more his own than his models’.  That remains to be seen, of course.

His subjects are all his own, though.  Invasion of Ukraine is inspired by Guernica, it’s not a copy of the Picasso—any more than Fernando Botero’s Mona Lisa is a copy of Da Vinci’s.

The first time I heard of Andres Valencia, in that local newscast late last month, and saw the art that was going on exhibit in the gallery show, I saw that this wasn’t what I’d have expected from a preteen.  The first thing that struck me was the colors—bright, bold, vibrant, assertive.

Then, of course, the deconstructed faces and bodies.  They were Picassoesque, as I noted, but not slavishly.  It was an artist’s take on the great painter’s style, but distinctively original.  There was clearly something creative at work; Valencia wasn’t just some juvenile copyist.

The next day, I looked the painter up on the Internet and what I found convinced me that he was a remarkable artist-in-the-making.  His work didn’t reveal just a sophisticated, advanced technique, but a complex creative mentality.  In fact, his paintings were a little daunting, even frightening. 

My response to what I saw reminded me of my first exposure to Botero’s paintings when I was 11.  I thought his work was grotesque (though I don’t think I’d have come up with that word at the time) and disturbing.  Two years later, when my mother bought one of Botero’s paintings as a birthday gift for my father, I wasn’t sure I could live in a house with it on the wall.  (I did, however, for the next five years, and then it happily remained in my parents’ homes for the rest of their lives.)

I knew, too, that I had to see this art in person and made a date with myself to go to SoHo for the Chase Contemporary exhibit.  As I noted earlier, I walked downtown in Sunday, 3 July, and spent about an hour in the gallery.

Valencia’s subjects, “mainly ideas that just come to me,” reveals Valencia, are mostly distorted human figures and clowns, including characters from cartoons (Goofy, 2021), the music industry (John Lennon and Yoko Ono, 2022), art (Van Gogh, 2020 [not at Chase Contemporary]), and military types (The Commander, 2022).  There are multiple exceptions, including his collaborations with other artists.

One of the most unusual of Valencia’s character pieces is John Lennon and Yoko Ono, a fairly large piece (5' x 3′).  All of the artist’s other character paintings—with the glaring exception of Invasion—are either single figures or images of two or three separate ones (Tom and Jenny, 2022; Three Punks, 2021—wonderfully evocative).  Lennon and Ono is a painting of one figure representing the couple. 

On a lemon-yellow background is the familiar deconstructed face, but if you examines the image carefully, you can see that the “face” is really two faces, melded side by side.  The right side is Yoko Ono and the left is John Lennon—you can tell because the face on the right has

John Lennon and Yoko Ono on wall at far left

big red lips.  Both Ono’s and Lennon’s hair is long, but the lengths are asymmetrical.  But it’s really only because of the painting’s title can you see that Valencia has painted the couple as joined this way.

What do I glean from this?  It’s very cleaver, first, and a little sneaky, too.  It demonstrates some serious thought about how to portray two people who mean something more than just painting subjects to Valencia—the Beatles (there’s also a portrait of Paul McCartney, but not in the Chase Contemporary show) are at the top of the painter’s hit parade of musical artists.  Either Valencia’s inspiration was working overtime, or he put some serious thought into how to render these special people.

Then he adapted his customary painting style to make his statement—to tell the story he wanted this piece of art to tell.  That may be the most impressive little accomplishment the young artists has revealed so far—flexibility within a consistent style.  (Big accomplishments, I think, are the fact of his painting at all and creating Invasion.)

Max the Clown (2022), one of several clown paintings in the exhibit (another is Alberto the Clown, 2021, the painting that has been made into another print like Ms. Cube) is a lightly-hued rendering of a curly scarlet-haired clown with green cheeks and a red tripartite mouth in a pale yellow costume with blue pom-poms.  Drips run from the red mop and from a pom-pom on his chest.

Among the outliers in the exhibition are the painting of Disney’s Goofy, which is rendered quite realistically, and Yoshi (2022), a portrait of a Japanese soldier, circa World War II, which is essentially Realistic, but with some Expressionistic characteristics.  (I assume this image comes from Valencia’s reading on military history, one of his chosen subjects, and possibly also movies about World War II in the Pacific.) 

El Toro (2021) is a cubistic depiction of a bull in shaded tan against a brick-red background. 

Max the Clown

The shading—which Valencia does with his hands and fingers—gives the image a hint of three-dimensionality.  It’s a small piece, 24½" x 20", and is outlined not in black like almost all Valencia’s other works, but cerulean blue.  It’s a very stunning painting, with the bull’s body in profile but with his head turned toward the viewer.  (The bull has three eyes—two in their usual locations and a third in his forehead.)

The coloring of these different paintings is all much more muted than the more habitual, abstract works of Valencia.  Except for Goofy, they're virtually monochromatic.  They also have the look more of drawings than paintings, making them stand out all the more as out of the ordinary.

A number of people, including both fellow artists and other art-world professionals, have predicted an amazing future for Valencia.  Of course, no one can predict what’s ahead for him: he could lose interest in visual art—maybe music will take its place in his creative soul; he could stagnate and the world’s attention could pass him by for the next striking phenomenon.

There have been any number of creative people who leapt onto the stage with great acclaim and then faded.  Writers who wrote one great book and never equaled the maiden effort; singers and song-writers who became famous one-hit wonders.  The poor player who struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more.

I think of Orson Welles, who became the enfant terrible of the theater and then Hollywood at 20 and flamed out five years later to become a sort of legendary ghost.  There’s many a slip ’twixt cup and lip.

But if the young painter keeps his focus and energy on target, Andres Valencia sure seems to have all the prerequisites for an astonishing career in art.  He has zeal, talent, drive, concentration, curiosity, and imagination.  He even seems already to have discipline, which many young artists often seem to lack. 

My interest in art is as an amateur; I have no expertise.  But from my point of view, Valencia has all the makings of superb artist.  His work is already arresting, and his approach to art is honest and heartfelt.  Here’s hoping that he keeps on rollin’ and keeps on making art that makes him happy . . . as well as other people.

[A number of pros from the worlds of art and journalism have had something to say about the young artist, Andres Valencia.  In the absence of published reviews of either the Art Miami exhibit or the Chase Contemporary installation, I think it’s worth seeing what these art and press people have said.

[I don’t know why there have been no reviews of Valencia’s work from the public displays.  Though there’s some discussion of his artistic style, with mentions of some specific canvases, maybe no one wants to criticize a 10-year-old in print.  I can certainly understand that.

[In the exhibit catalogue for the Chase Contemporary show, Andres Valencia: No Rules, the gallery collected remarks from several art professionals as “testimonials.”  Of course, I recognize that these people’s words are offered by the gallery as a marketing tactic, just like testimonials in a TV commercial, but since most of these folks have backed their words with acts (and even cash, in some cases), I’d put some credence in them.. 

retna (artist):  Andres and I did a collaboration recently [2021; in catalogue].  It was amazing to see and very, very inspirational.  There is a lot of division that happens in the world, but the arts can unite people.  That is what I look forward to in Andres’ work.  What he has done is amazing and he has so much more to offer.

jessica goldman srebnick (owner/curator, wynwood walls; ceo, goldman global arts; collector of valencia’s work): As someone who finds great joy in discovering artistic talent from around the world, I was completely blown away when I saw the work of Andres Valencia for the first time.  For a 10[-]year[-]old to be so effortless, so passionate, and so inquisitive is just extraordinary.  Andres is a rare natural talent and someone who is certain to make an impact in the art world over his long career . . . [.]  Andres told me once that he wanted to make people happy with his work . . . you do[,] sweet Andres, you do!

raphael mazzucco (photographer and artist): Artists are born and see the world through different lenses.  Andres has these special lenses that create fascinating characters on canvas.  He was only 7 when we worked on an art collaboration together [2019; on Basically Beautiful website, https://basicallybeautiful.com/basically-beautiful-art/andres-valencia-child-artist/].  I knew then that he had special talent.  He’s an old soul.

Andres is never Afraid [sic] to try to push forward and look to see where the unknown lies.

nick korniloff (art world professional; director of art miami): He’s a prodigy, there’s no question about that.  This is a real special child.

The art world for me has always been about access to the mind of an artist.  What the work says to you as you look at it, how you interpret it, how others interpret it and the conversation around it.  And I think Andres is going to be a great conversation for many years to come.

[victor williams (reporter, new york weekly): Andres Valencia gravitated toward a mix of Cubism and contemporary art, using bright and bold colors to create one-of-a-kind visual wonders. . . .  Determined to impress and make a lot of people smile as he presents his new collection in his upcoming exhibit later this year, Andres is pouring his heart and creativity into all his latest artworks.

[tracy risucci (ceo, basically beautiful): While developing an Instagram series on the great George Condo, . . . we discovered two of Andres’ paintings.  Let’s say we were instant fans!  Besides the colors, the lines and the subjects, the work is incredibly original, innocent and joyful. . . .  Andres is only 8 years old and in the 2nd grade [this post dates from May 2020] and is drawn to primary colors and draws and paints without any rules.

[donnalynn patakos (founder and editor-in-chief, portray magazine): Moving beyond his stellar music preferences . . . nine or not [this post dates from August 2021], Andres can paint. . . .  I watched the videos and nearly clapped with excitement. . . .  I recall listening to the legendary motivational speaker Earl Nightingale once defining . . . 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. . . .  Andres is one of the best examples I have seen of this, and it’s exciting to watch.

[miick mcstarkey (music and entertainment journalist, far out magazine): Aside from being in fourth grade, it is just how brilliant Valencia’s works are, particularly given he’s self-taught, which has caused such a stir. . . .  It seems he possesses a real tacit understanding of how art works, and surely this will stand him in good stead moving forward. The next few years are sure to be massive for the budding surrealist, and we’re sure the art world will be keeping a keen eye on him, as his works at only ten are truly breathtaking. He has the makings of someone we’ll be talking about in years to come.

[daniel lichterwaldt (vienna-based curator; journalist/interviewer, les nouveaux riches magazine): Andres‘ style and technique have evolved into something very unique over time. His works are never the typical face, (like Bacon) and body of a person – rather, his characters usually have one eye, two or more at times. The characters he creates have facial features spread throughout the face with drips, at times, and beautiful colour combinations. . . .  His color choices, shading and intense detail are captivating.]