Image via Complex Original
For as long as there has been art, the debate over whether true artists are born or made has been raging. And with proponents on both sides, it’s the sort of chicken-or-the-egg argument that will likely never come to a satisfactory conclusion. But if ever there was a case to be made for the concept of instinctual artistry, the 20 young artists profiled here—all of them under 20 years of age—would be it. These are The 20 Bests Artists Under 20 Right Now.
Yung Lenox
Age: 8
Location: Seattle, Wash.
Dubbed “hip-hop’s unlikely eight-year-old Caravaggio” by The Guardian and “the foremost doodler of rap” byLA Weekly, for his part, Seattle-based third-grader concedes the whole renowned portraitist thing, but adds “Lego enthusiast” to his growing list of descriptors. Since the age of five, Lenox has been putting magic marker to paper to reinterpret iconic album covers, including 2 Live Crew’s As Nasty As They Wanna Be, in totally unique and surprisingly psychedelic ways. After having his work shown at Frieze New York in 2013, Lenox will return to the Big Apple this year for the Tribeca Film Festival premiere of Live Fast, Draw Yung, Anthony Mathile and Stacey Lee’s new documentary about Lenox’s life.
Kieron Williamson
Age: 12
Location: Norfolk, England
“I was a typical energetic toddler,” 12-year-old watercolor artist Kieron Williamson recounts on his website. “I loved playing in the mud, investigating bugs, finding sticks, and generally exploring the outdoors.” He goes on to explain that it was during a family vacation to Cornwall, England (he lives in Norfolk) in 2008 that he was first inspired to start drawing. He was five years old. And he hasn’t stopped since, gaining a reputation as a “mini-Monet” with his finely tuned use of perspective and shading. And his work is in high demand. Last summer, Williamson earned more than $575,000 in a single, 40-piece show (with 29 of the pieces selling before it even opened to the public).
Eric Aidoo
Age: 18
Location: Bristol, England
As appropriate as Eric Aidoo’s art moniker—“Just Scribble”—is, it somehow doesn’t seem to give enough credit to the work that this 18-year-old, self-taught artist is creating. His hand-drawn portraits of some of the biggest names in hip-hop, including Jay Z, Kendrick Lamar, Rick Ross, Wiz Khalifa, and Soulja Boy, have gotten the attention of the art and music worlds at large, including some of the very people he has depicted.
Jack Ede
Age: 19
Location: Sleaford, England
Who needs art school when you’ve got social media, and can use that power to demonstrate your own creative process? In 2014, Instagram sensation Jack Ede (who has 100,000 followers and growing) made headlines when his hyper-realistic portrait of One Direction heartthrob Harry Styles went viral, leading the then-18-year-old (now 19) to quit art school. Just a few months later, Ede became a trending topic once again when the world couldn’t believe that his drawing of Morgan Freeman—which took him more than 137 hours to complete—wasn’t a photograph. And now he’s turning his talents to the most permanent kind of wearable art; in January, he was offered a job by the owner of London’s Iron and Ink tattoo parlor.
Aelita Andre
Age: 8
Location: Melbourne, Australia
Before she could even say, “abstract expressionist art,” eight-year-old Aelita Andre was creating it. Painting since the age of nine months (yes, really!), the Australia-born Surrealist began showing her work publicly at the age of two. In 2011, her first solo show in New York City, held at Agora Gallery, sold out in one week. (It probably makes it unsurprising that they asked her back for a second show one year later.)
Nic Tullis
Age: 19
Location: St. Louis, Mo.
At the intersection of art and cutting-edge technology sits the work of 19-year-old Nic Tullis, a St. Louis-based street photographer who has spent the last several years sharing his unique view on the world with the same technology that’s likely in your very own back pocket right now: an iPhone (which he uses for both shooting and editing). The result is an extremely powerful collection of photographs—many of them portraits—that illustrate the self-taught artist’s interest in social issues and societal changes. In May, he’ll put on an exhibit and silent auction at the Soulard Art Market & Contemporary Gallery, with proceeds benefiting a local organization for the homeless.
Alex Currie
Age: 17
Location: Buffalo, N.Y.
Buffalo, N.Y.-based Alex Currie says his photographs “focus on conveying a story in a single frame and evoking a strong emotional connection with the viewer,” which is a lofty goal for any photographer, particularly one who is still in high school. Still, the 17-year-old photographer/filmmaker is beating artists with two and three times the experience at their own game, with a collection of images that are at once both haunting and intimate.
David Uzochukwu
Age: 16
Location: Brussels
In September, Austrian teen David Uzochukwu beat out more than 15,000 other photographers and 100,000 photos to be named The EyeEm Photographer of the Year with his self-portrait, “Cry Me a River.” The image was part of a self-imposed project the 16-year-old created for himself last summer, in which he committed to taking one photograph per day. "Working on a tight deadline and being unable to always plan ahead forced me to get creative,” Uzochukwu told The Huffington Post. Having an eye for detail, color, and the elements that make up a striking photo certainly doesn’t hurt either.
Autumn de Forest
Age: 13
Location: Las Vegas
As the youngest living descendant of Robert W. de Forest, an art dealer, collector, and early director of The Met in New York City, 13-year-old Autumn de Forest has artistry in her genes. But the 13-year-old artist, who has been described as a “prodigy” by everyone from the Discovery Channel to Forbes (who in 2010 wrote about de Forest and the $250,000 she was making a year at the age of eight) has a style that has been compared to Warhol, Picasso, and Pollock.
Ryan Parrilla
Age: 16
Location: New York
Growing up in New York City, it’s hard to not be inspired by your surroundings. But not everyone knows how to channel their environment into a creative outlet. Fortunately, Ryan Parrilla—or @novess, as he’s known on Instagram, where he has nearly 90,000 followers—is not everyone. The 16-year-old street photographer has already had his work featured in countless media outlets and has been the subject of just as many pieces worldwide. As for where he’s headed? “My ultimate goal is just to be a successful photographer,” Parrilla told the New York Postin 2014. Mission accomplished.
Alexis Seeney
Age: 19
Location: Durham, N.C.
19-year-old Alexis Seeney is better known on the art scene by her professional name, HyperForever. And she’s well known by that name, as the Durham, N.C.-based artist has been profiled by a range of media outlets (including this very one that you’re reading). Her vector paintings of hip-hop and Hollywood celebrities have garnered the attention of their subjects, with Seeney getting encouragement from Kendrick Lamar, A$AP Rocky, and Spike Lee (to name a few).
Kevin Hill
Age: 18
Location: Lancaster, CA
Like a modern-day Bob Ross, 18-year-old Kevin Hill has developed a following by letting people in on his oil painting process. After learning to paint via PBS, Hill—who works with oil and focuses on landscapes—adapted the painting show concept for the YouTube generation with a channel that boasts more than 60,000 subscribers and more than nine million views (and counting).
Rodman Edwards
Age: 15
Location: Turlock, Calif.
Sculptor Rodman Edwards may only be 15 years old, but he’s already aware that fearlessness—even in the face of controversy—is a requirement for any artist. In February, the high school student made headlines across the country when he put forth a proposal for trading out the TV Hall of Fame’s Cliff Huxtable statue with his vision for “Fat Albert Cries for Dr. Huxtable,” a life-sized bronze statue depicting a nude Cliff Huxtable with Fat Albert in place of his genitals. “I wanted to deal with this particular current event, because I was a big fan of Fat Albert when I was very young,” Edwards told The Creators Project. “I felt I needed to speak up, and show what I think of this through my art.”
João Carvalho
Age: 15
Location: Brazil
Digital technology may be the bane of some purists, but it’s the inspiration for 15-year-old artist João Carvalho, who sometimes goes by J Desenhos. He gained a legion of admirers when his two-dimensional drawings of three-dimensional notepads featuring crinkles, curves, dots, dents, and bends, went viral in 2014.
Mandy Wang
Age: 17
Location: San Diego
San Diego native Mandy Wang describes herself as an “aspiring Disney and Marvel artist,” and she’s already proven that she’s ready to put in the work that it takes to get her there. This 17-year-old isn’t just churning out illustrations and then moving on to the next one; she’s using her Instagram feed as a way to keep track of how she has progressed as an artist—learning all that she can about illustrative technique and re-creating the same images again and again. It’s a unique (and effective) approach that got the attention of The Huffington Post.
Luis Ruiz
Age: 18
Location: Mexico
Luis Ruiz is an 18-year-old illustrator from Mexico who has followed his creative muse throughout his life. When, in elementary school, he felt what he describes as “a sudden urge to write,” it ended with the first installment of his magical realism trilogy, The Universal Stone, being published at the age of 11. After spending time as a dancer, Ruiz eventually gravitated toward illustration, which allows him to combine his many passions and what he calls his “continuous interest in telling new stories.”
Maya Penn
Age: 14
Location: Atlanta
Not every artist can boast both the creative talent to make a living as an artist and the entrepreneurial skills to actually market his or her work. At the age of 15, artist Maya Penn—who also defines herself as a philanthropist, environmental activist, entrepreneur, eco-designer, inspirational speaker, animator, coder, illustrator, and writer—is already proving that she can do it all. In addition to being the CEO of Maya’s Ideas, an eco-conscious clothing company she founded at the age of eight, Penn has been profiled by dozens of media outlets, including Forbes, Time, Cosmopolitan, and NPR, and her TEDTalks have been viewed by more than a million people.
Ema Klucovská
Age: 16
Location: Velky Grob, Slovakia
She may have only just turned 16 years old, but Slovakian teenager Ema Klucovská is firmly headed in the right direction for achieving her dream of becoming a movie and game designer in Hollywood. In 2014, the Stan Winston School of Character Arts profiled Klucovská, describing her as a prodigy and proclaiming, “you’re never too young to make monsters.”
Demetria Skye
Age: 18
Location: Scotland
Self-taught Scottish illustrator Demetria Skye says in her Instagram profile, where she has more than 13,000 followers, that she “loves drawing anything that catches my eyes.” And she clearly has a soft spot for Disney characters, which she reimagines in cheeky ways via marker. In March, she gained worldwide attention for a series of illustrations in which she drew Big Hero 6’s Baymax as other iconic kiddie characters, from Donald Duck to the genie in Aladdin.
Tristan Klein
Age: 18
Had you asked 18-year-old Tristan Klein to draw a skull even a year ago, what you saw back then would probably be nothing like what you see today. It was less than a year ago when Klein discovered his interest in—and talent for—biological artistry. Today, his feed is a fantastic time capsule of how he has progressed as an artist in such a short time. In February, his work was featured in EarthTouch News Network, where he explained: “I use this medium because I want to challenge myself. I've taught myself self-control, patience, and self-confidence this way.”