Translation: Lajla Mlinarić Blake TRANSLATION Lajla Mlinarić Blake
ILLUSTRATIVE PHOTO


HOW EMBARRASSING

JANUARY 9 2009 19:06h

Two-Year-Old Girl Fools Art World

Section Newest

Text

A Melbourne art gallery exhibited an abstract painting, not knowing the artist was only two years old.

Nikka Kalashnikova is a photographer and mother of two-year-old Aelita who likes to paint. When Nikka met the owner of an art gallery in Melbourne, Mark Jamieson, she showed him her daughter’s paintings, but did not let him know Aelita’s age. Thrilled with the works, Mark decided to include the paintings in the exhibition. 

The gallery had already printed promotional materials for the exhibition and paid ads in newspapers when they discovered that the talented artist Aelita was only 22 months old!

To be honest, I was shocked and I feel a bit embarrassed, Jamieson told the media. Aelita’s works, estimated at 350 to 2,000 dollars, will still be exhibited at the gallery alongside the photographs of her mother and another artist, The Telegraph reported.

Aelita’s parents refuted accusations of the media that they intentionally fooled the gallery, claiming that they only wanted to hear the opinion of a third person about the creative work of their two-year-old.