Aelita Andre Admires her Work at the Agora Gallery (All Photos By Gail)

It was almost exactly one year ago that The Worley Gig was first introduced to the engaging painting style of art prodigy Aelita Andre via her 2011 solo exhibit, Prodigy of Color. Aelita, now five years old, has a new show at Agora Gallery and we were on hand last night for the opening reception of the current Andre collection called Secret Universe.

Island of Fairies

It sounds hilarious to observe that the artwork of a five year old has “visibly matured” since last year, but that is definitely the case with Secret Universe. Andre has maintained her signature abstract style, which involves dripping and pouring paint of various colors onto a canvas and then embellishing it with the adhesion of random found objects including toys, dolls, odd bits of plastic and metal, and lots of glitter! While these pieces are instantly recognizable as Andre’s work (and for those skeptics, a video of Aelita in the process of creating many paintings 100%-on-her-own plays on a continuous loop in the gallery) this collection includes several multi-panel works that further demonstrate Andre’s ability to extend her vision. Overall, her new work also has a more dynamic feel, for lack of a better way to describe it, and the individual works have sharper points of contrast within them.

Floating Rainbow Man

Paleontologist’s Footprint Dinosaurs Nesting Grounds

Photos don’t fully capture the brightness of the colors on these canvases, which is another reason that your enjoyment of Aelita Andre’s work will be so fully heightened by experiencing this show in person, if you are intrigued at all. It will be interesting to see how her painting style develops as she gets older and to see whether she will become less abstract in her representation while maintaining her surrealist style. There is no doubt that Aelita Andre is an authentic and exciting talent to keep an eye on. She’s also a really cute kid who was running around the gallery at Saturday’s opening like, well, a typical happy 5 year old. Her sprit is definitely captured in her work.

String City

It’s also worth noting that while we fully expected to see Andre’s work selling for the tens of thousands of dollars, pieces are mostly in the $4800 – $6,000 range, with only two very large multi-panel works selling for close to $13,000. Certainly an affordable price range, though your mileage may vary.

Dinosaur Planet (Detail)

Secret Universe By Aelita Andre is on Exhibit through July 3rd, 2012 only, so don’t waste any time planning your visit. The Agora Gallery is Located at 530 West 25th Street (West of 10th Avenue), 2nd Floor, NYC. Gallery Hours are Tuesday – Saturday, 11 AM – 6 PM.