Ten-Year-Old Prodigy Andres Valencia Evokes George Condo, Picasso, In Vibrant Paintings, Including Visceral Contemporary ‘Guernica’ Confronting Invasion Of Ukraine

A large eye weeps onto a Ukrainian flag emblazoned with a damaged coronary heart and bullet casings, drawing our gaze to the higher left of a monumental canvas. Symbolism and Surrealism collide as distressed and distorted Cubist figures – one brandishing an unlimited assault rifle that instructions the middle of the boldly coloured portray – expose the dread and terror of conflict. Constructing on Picasso’s 1937 anti-war masterpiece, 10-year-old Andres Valencia contemplates the horrors of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s bloodthirsty Invasion of Ukraine.

His mom, Elsa Valencia, mentioned Andres stayed dwelling from faculty on March 25, a month and a day after the invasion began, as a result of he felt ailing. February 24 marked the escalation of the bitter, simmering eight-year Russo-Ukrainian Struggle, and hurled it into the worldwide highlight.

“It was March twenty fifth. I do know the date as a result of when he completed sketching it he wrote the date and signed the again of the canvas, so we wouldn’t overlook. Andres was in his bed room as I used to be watching and listening to the information in regards to the conflict in Ukraine,“ Elsa Valencia mentioned. “He was very quiet and I walked into his room to ensure he was OK. After I walked in I noticed a small 12-inch-by-9-inch canvas sketched and coloured with marker. I requested him in regards to the portray. He mentioned it was the ‘invasion of Ukraine.’ I used to be completely moved by the portray. I sat there analyzing it. I turned to him and I requested him if he wished an enormous canvas. He turned to me and requested if Putin would do ‘one thing’ to him. I mentioned ‘no, he gained’t do something to you. Why do you suppose he would do one thing to you?’ I requested him. He mentioned, ‘as a result of when Picasso painted Guernica, Franco was not joyful about it and so they wished to harm Picasso.”

Andres Valencia walked all the way down to the lounge in his San Diego dwelling, and in 9 minutes, sketched the ultimate portray on a big canvas, Elsa Valencia mentioned.

“When he completed I sat there and made positive to ask him what precisely all of it meant,” she mentioned. “He went by means of every space and described the entire portray.”

Andres Valencia, who started portray when he was about 5 years previous whereas standing on a step ladder to create large-scale works with a mixture of oil stick, and oil and acrylic paint, can also be a conflict historical past buff. The Commander (2022) is a nod to that fascination and a pleasant play f a inexperienced uniform popping from a lavender backdrop.

“I feel historical past is necessary and I watch documentaries as a result of I wish to be taught. All wars are dangerous. I additionally find out about troopers and what they did through the conflict. I realized about (conscientious objector) Non-public Doss and (real-life Rambo, Grasp Sergeant Raul Perez) ‘Roy’ Benavidez,” mentioned Valencia. “I feel that artwork tells tales and I’m telling the story of the Ukrainian folks and what Russia is doing to them. My portray is telling a narrative that may not be forgotten.”

Valencia took the artwork world by storm, shortly promoting out a Chase Contemporary sales space at Artwork Miami final December, the place crowds gathered to look at him reside paint with Caribbean-born American artist Bradley Theodore. People ducked below ropes and tried to clamber up a ladder to sneak a peek on the then-10-year-old virtuoso who offered work to celebrities resembling Brooke Shields and Sofia Vergara to learn the Perry J. Cohen Foundation (PJCF), which helps the humanities, environmental, marine and wildlife schooling and preservation, in addition to teenage entrepreneurship and boating security schooling.

June is an distinctive month for Valencia’s profession trajectory. He makes his international public sale debut on June 21 at Phillips twentieth Century & Up to date Artwork & Design Day Sale in Hong Kong, when the unique Ms Dice (2020) portray, used for his first restricted version print run, goes on the block. His first solo exhibition opens at Chase Contemporary’s SoHo flagship on June 23, with a reception that night. Valencia is represented solely by Chase Contemporary. Dedicated to philanthropy, Valencia is donating a portray to be auctioned on the UNICEF Summer season Gala on July 30 in Capri, Italy.

Strongly influenced by George Rental, Picasso, and Cubism, Valencia combines vivid colours and intelligent fragmented facial compositions to create large-scale, dramatic, vibrant figurative work that convey complicated narratives. Katalina (2020), depicting a femine determine with an elongated neck, a left eye embraced by a blue oval, and pouty crimson lips on a yellow block chin, dares us into her story.

Prolific and prodigious, Valencia paints day by day from his dwelling studio, the place he additionally research artwork historical past, watches movies about portray, and sculpts, growing an curiosity in a various vary of artists resembling Gerhard Richter, Vincent van Gogh, Amedeo Modigliani, Francis Bacon, and Michelangelo. He’s additionally influenced by RETNA, Richard Hambleton, Raphael Mazzucco, Salvador Dalí, and different artists his father started amassing about eight years in the past.

Valencia usually begins with small sketches earlier than embarking on bigger canvases, guided by his colour wheel. Portray a number of canvases at a time, Valencia executes many works inside about 4 days, constructing from inspiration that strikes in any respect hours, generally rousing him from sleep.

Academics at his California public faculty Visible and Performing Arts (VAPA) program shortly acknowledged his distinctive, precocious expertise, and his mother and father instantly inspired and nurtured his self expression.

Max the Clown (2022) conveys introspection, and engages our eyes on a dance throughout the canvas, as if we’re juggling the blue orbs on the physique and brow and the inexperienced round cheeks. Painterly drips bleed from the crimson wig and from a blue dot on the chest.

Generally he paints in silence, different instances he listens to a big selection of music together with The Beatles, The Sugarhill Gang, Run DMC, the Beastie Boys, The Animals, and James Brown. His topics embody exaggerated human figures and clowns, generally impressed by motion pictures and cartoons, “however primarily concepts that simply come to me,” Valencia confides.