The next mini-Pollock?

There has been an explosion in the media lately surrounding the work of 4-year old Aelita Andre, who has recently been deemed the world’s “youngest professional painter” and given a show in NYC’s Agora Gallery, which runs from June 4th to June 25th. To me, the story is all too familiar here… the little girl they’re calling the next Jackson Pollock is really just the next Marla Olmstead, another 4-year old painting prodigy from a few years back who raked in thousands of dollars for her “abstract expressionist” paintings and was eventually featured in a documentary called “My Kid Could Paint That.” I like what this NY Times opinion article says about the hype being more about the story than the art. As ridiculous it may seem to attach labels like “automatism” and “surrealism” to the result of an innocent child at play and add some bullshit about it combining “unconscious techniques and intentional abstract depictions of reality” (blah blah pretentious art talk blah blah), I also can’t help thinking the works of this tutu-wearing munchkin are actually pretty cool. See for yourself…