A number of days in the past, BTS’s V proudly confirmed off an artwork piece from his assortment on Instagram. It was a portrait of him by Andres Valencia, a present from the artist himself. V shared the image with a caption mentioning that he’s a fan of Valencia’s work.
Thank you @andresvalenciaart for this lovely paintings!
Ever since I noticed your work, I’ve been such a fan☺️— V
Many individuals know Valencia’s identify because the baby prodigy of the up to date artwork world in the present day. His work promote for 1000’s of {dollars}, and other than V, the checklist of his celeb admirers consists of names like Sofia Vergara, altering Tatum, and Brooke Shields. But his success at 11 years of age is as fascinating as his journey as an artist who began when he was solely 4 years previous!
Andres’s mother and father observed that from an early age, he would spend hours in their San Diego eating room, sketching a portray by the graffiti artist Retna, considered one of his father’s former shoppers. Andres later revealed that he was very consciously making an attempt to copy the work precisely and it took him years to determine it out. But as soon as he found his inventive energy, he began promoting watercolors to household pals for $20.
One of these early shoppers of Valencia was Bernie Chase, the proprietor of the Chase Contemporary artwork gallery in New York. Mr. Chase supplied to pay $100 to the kid artist each time he visited the Valencias in San Diego. When Andres wished to lift his value to $5,000, Mr. Chase shockingly agreed to pay the quantity for considered one of his items. But his mom, Elsa Valencia, objected and stopped him from writing the cheque.
Nevertheless, Mr. Chase purchased sufficient work from Andres to persuade his mother and father to let him pursue artwork as an expert. He bought in contact with Nick Korniloff, the director of Art Miami, to debut the kid artist. Mr. Korniloff later revealed that he didn’t have a lot confidence within the expertise of a 10-year-old painter when he first heard of him from Mr. Chase. But he determined to present it a shot as a result of he felt that the story of this exceptionally younger artist could possibly be gratifying in the course of the despairing atmosphere of the early pandemic years.
But Mr. Korniloff determined to play it protected and didn’t’ point out Andres’s’ age in any of the truthful’s promotional supplies. Against his skepticism, Anders’s works swiftly turned the focus within the artwork world. As the phrase unfold in regards to the baby artist, reporters began to hunt verifications that these artwork items that offered for 1000’s of {dollars} had been certainly created by a center schooler. That’s when Mr. Korniloff invited Andres to color reside alongside Bradley Theodore, a preferred road artist a number of many years older than him. It drew extra media consideration towards the prodigy.
Within a 12 months, Andres’ artistry proved its prowess as revered collectors like Tomy Mottola and Jessica Goldman Srebnick ended up buying his work throughout Art Basel Miami Beach. This 12 months in June, Andres had a solo exhibition on the Chase Contemporary, the place all of his 35 artworks had been offered, incomes someplace between $50,000 to $125,000. But the highest-earning work of Andres had been offered for much more. At a Phillips de Pury public sale in Hong Kong, considered one of his items went for $159,000 (with charges), and one other one made $230,000 at a charity gala in Capri, Italy.
Despite his monitor success, Andres’s mother and father make sure that he doesn’t lose his sense of childhood. His mom, Elsa, stated in an interview, “My son is an artist, but he is a kid first,” later including, “He is a child, not a celebrity.” And it appears like Andres shouldn’t be susceptible to shedding his childlike innocence and sensitivities whereas coping with the internal workings of the artwork world. When requested about his inventive inspirations, he listed Picasso, Jean-Michel Basquiat, George Condo, and Pokémon Click N” Play military motion figures.
An enormous a part of the gross sales proceeds from Andres’s work goes in the direction of charity. His mother and father consider that this enormous success is an effective alternative for him to study giving again. According to the Valencias, extra than $300,000 from Andres’s’s gross sales has been donated to the AIDS charity group amfAR and the youngsters’s charity Box of Hope.
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