Beso Kazaishvili

Beso Kazaishvili was born on February 10, 1986 in Kutaisi (Koo-tay-see), the second largest city in the Republic of Georgia. He is the second of five children born to father, Badri, and mother, Irma. He, his older brother and three younger sisters all survived the bloody civil war that ravaged their country and robbed them of their childhood.

One evening, in the winter of 1992, during a particularly fierce night of fighting, having previously shown no proclivities towards art, Beso was visited by "four points of light" that left him numb and in a state of shock. When he awoke the next morning, he began to create magnificent and beautiful paintings and drawings.

While touring Kutaisi, the Georgian Ambassador to Great Britain saw Beso's work on display at a local bank and immediately arranged for Beso to have an exhibit at a prestigious gallery in London. The show was an overwhelming success. Every one of Beso's paintings sold out on opening night. The European media came out in full force to celebrate this rarest of artists . . . a visual arts prodigy. He was proclaimed a genius and soon his popularity spread all across Europe.

Televisions and film producer, Rick Lombardo, was working on a documentary on child prodigies in the visual arts when he saw one of the many news reports on Beso. He promptly called Ben Valenty, the man responsible for discovering and building the career of another incredible child prodigy, Alexandra Nechita. After visiting Beso in London, the two men signed the young artist to an exclusive publishing agreement.

Requests for media interviews have been overwhelming and, already, a major television documentary of Beso, his art and his journey to the Festival of Peace is being shot. Support for the festival of peace from world leaders so far has been near-total. Over the next few months, young Beso will be visiting perhaps as many as forty countries in order to present each nation's heads-of-state with their painting.