A 10-year-old Hispanic Picasso

Sofía Vergara, Tommy Mottola and Channing Tattum are some of the celebrities who boast of having a painting by Andrés Valencia in their homes. The 10-year-old California phenomenon has already exhibited in prestigious art galleries and sold works for $230,000. And all while still doing math homework in his room....

Because, despite the success - and the money - he is reaping,"my son is an artist, but first he is a child," says Elsa, his mother. Both she and her husband, Guadalupe Valencia, are Mexican. Elsa is a jewelry designer and Lupe is a lawyer and agent for athletes, such as Cuban boxer Frank Sanchez. The family resides in San Diego, California.

Artist, but child first

When Andres was four years old, his parents began to notice that he spent hours sitting in the dining room. When they looked more closely, they realized that he was trying to copy a work by one of Lupe's clients, a graffiti artist named Retna. Soon, Little Picasso, as he has been nicknamed, began selling paintings to family and friends for $20.

It would be another of the father's clients, Bernie Chase, owner of the Chase Gallery, who finally convinced the parents of Andrés real potential. Chase agreed with the boy that each time he came to his house he would pay him $100 for a work of his choice. Andrés proved that, in addition to painting, he is also a good businessman after he asked him for $5,000 on one occasion. Bernie didn't hesitate: "I took him to my car to write a check and Elsa came running out after me yelling, 'What do you think you're doing?'" he recalls telling the The New York Times.

"What do you think you're doing?"

It was also Chase who introduced the Valencias to the art business. It was he who contacted Nick Korniloff, the director of Art in Miami, to propose organizing the debut of the "art prodigy" at his fair. Korniloff was hesitant at first, but thought people would like to see "something cheerful" after the pandemic and decided to give it a try, especially after seeing the boy's artwork in photographs.

However, he felt it was too risky to make Andrew's age public, so he left it out of all the materials. As the event got underway, he approached collectors to ask them: "What if I told you that these works were made by a 10-year-old boy, and that some of them were made when he was only 8?"

Live painting to clear up any doubts

Far from ruining his reputation, as Korniloff feared, news of the child painter soon went viral. Celebrities such as Sofia Vergara and Channing Tattum bought some of the works. But with fame came doubts about the real authorship of the paintings. To settle the matter once and for all, Korniloff organized a day where Valencia would paint live alongside renowned street artist Bradley Theodore. The event was a success and was attended by numerous media outlets.

At this time, Chase's $5,000 is pocket change when compared to the price of Andrés' work. One of his paintings sold for $159,000 (with tax) at a Phillips de Pury auction in Hong Kong, and another fetched $230,000 at a charity gala in Capri (Italy), his record, for the moment. Last June he had a solo exhibition at the Chase Contemporary gallery in SoHo, where the 35 works sold, according to the gallery, went for between $50,000 and $125,000.

Style and inspiration

The large amount of money Andres has received has led his parents to teach him "the importance of giving back to society" a part of what he has earned. As a result, they have donated a portion of the proceeds to the AIDS charity group amfAR and the children's organization Box of Hope.

The Chase Gallery website defines him as "a contemporary artist known for his large, dramatic and colorful figurative paintings that are deeply influenced by George Condo, Picasso and Cubism." He is also known for seeking to "create bold colors and wildly imaginative fragmented facial compositions."