‘Art has no age.’ And four-year-old Advait Kolarkar has proven the theory right. Gaining popularity as a child prodigy, the little artist discovered art when he started crawling as a baby, and in a matter of two years has had his paintings displayed at various exhibitions including the annual ArtExpo in New York, a destination event for the art industry and one that has hosted, among others, Andy Warhol.

In an interview with Hindustan Times, Advait’s mother, Shruti Kolarkar, who is a visual designer herself, said, “His elder sister Swara used to paint with watercolours and Advait would take them and use them to paint on the floor.”

Advait has previously had two solo exhibitions of his artwork, one at a gallery in Saint John in the Canadian province of New Brunswick, where he lives, and in Pune, the city where he was born.

The doting mother shared that intially Amit (Advait’s father) and she thought that his interest in colours would work well as “therapy for him, calm him down”, but gradually, they realised that it wasn’t just play!

In a creative field herself, Shruti was amazed by her son’s progress, “When he was one, he started making serious compositions on the floors.” Advait was then handed acrylic colours and canvases.

When a gallery owner in Pune came to know of his talent, he was invited for his first solo exhibition. The venue was the Art2Day gallery and Advait was just two at the time. Within weeks of that debut, the family moved to Canada. Advait continued to flourish and his parents approached the cultural affairs officer of the city of Saint John, who also happened to be the director of the city gallery.

“He got so impressed, so excited, he insisted we should exhibit Advait’s work at the gallery.” That exhibition, titled Colour Blizzard, was in January, days after his fourth birthday. And the city’s mayor, Don Darling, who inaugurated it, purchased one of Advait’s paintings, too.

All 30 of the works on display were sold out within days, and a waiting list had to be put in place since Advait’s works were being collected for his appearance in New York. “We had never imagined we will receive so much interest and he will be able to make so much money. Our initial thought was to keep him going with the art. He wants to keep painting,” said the proud mother.

Speaking of their future plans for the kiddo, Shruti said, “He will start school later this year, for he is all of four years old.” All that Advait’s paintings are earning today is being saved for his future education, and remaining is donated to charity. One of his paintings was auctioned to raise money for the Children’s Wish Foundation in Saint John.

“He loves that people are appreciating his art, he loves the idea of showing his work, he’s so happy. He just feels like flying when he sees his artwork on display. He realizes that he’s creating something that people like, but he’s not aware of the fame,” Shruti said about her son’s reaction to the attention he has attracted.

“He has received so much encouragement and love, that it has really helped us in nurturing his art,” she added.

H/T: Hindustan Times