An exhibition of works by the youngest professional painter in the world, Aelita Andre, a four-year-old abstract painter of Russian origin, has opened in a SoHo gallery in New York.

­Her solo show is entitled “The Prodigy of Color – Aelita Andre”.

She first gained international attention when she was 20 months old. Like many other kids, Aelita began by painting on large sheets of paper in her playgroup. But a hobby immediately proved to be more than just fun, turning into a real job.

Aelita's paintings sell around the world to abstract art lovers, winning her comparisons with Jackson Pollock, Salvador Dali and Wassily Kandinsky. Using acrylics and mixed media, she creates large canvases with juxtapositions of just about anything she can find – from twigs to bird feathers.

"Asteroid" by Aelita Andre (Image from agora-gallery.com)

­"As soon as she finished her first acrylic on canvas, I saw the MIR Russian Space Station surrounded by cherry blossoms. It was just so poignant and evocative," her father was quoted as saying.

With a sharp eye for color, she had her first personal exhibition opened in her native Melbourne, Australia, in 2009, featuring all the works she had painted as a one-year-old with the local media nicknaming her “Pee Wee Picasso”.

"Coral nebula" by Aelita Andre (Image from agora-gallery.com)

­When she was only two years old, Aelita was invited to show off her skills in Hong Kong by staging her solo show over there. The kid painted live in front of some 60 TV crews from around the world for over an hour.

She has been praised for her vivacity and vitality. Her parents say their daughter is obsessed with painting, running around the house demanding "Kist, kist!", the Russian word for paintbrush.

Aelita speaks Russian and English but mostly Russian which both parents encourage. She might have inherited her passion for painting from her grandfather Victor, who is one of her greatest admirers.