Meet the Northumberland 11-year-old graffiti artist who has already achieved his dream

Meet the 11-year-old graffiti artist who has already achieved his dream of having his artwork displayed in the Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art.

Taye Benjamin, known as Terox, is the youngest person to have work exhibited as part of the Gateshead gallery's open submission exhibition. And his creation for the event - rain clouds after the storm - was snapped up by an art collector on opening night, before the family had arrived at the gallery.

"I got there and the lady said it's been sold before anybody else came in", said Terox, who only started taking his artwork seriously around two years ago. In that time he has been invited to work on a legal wall in Bishop Auckland, produced work for a festival in Morpeth, worked on a bus for another festival, and featured in a book about up-and-coming artists.

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His dream of having work displayed at the Baltic took less than a year to achieve. His mum Keri Allen, from Morpeth, said: "He's been going to galleries since he could walk because he's always been interested in art.

"He'd been a regular visitor to the Baltic before he put his work in and he said the year before 'I want to get my work in here'. We took him to an exhibition that Mul [a fellow local graffiti artist] had and he said 'I'm going to have a piece of art in here'. Mul said to him if you keep working the way you are then one day you will. Literally eight weeks later he got his work in."

Keri added: "I believed him because art is just his thing and he's got such a drive and such a passion for it. When he first started going out and doing stuff, adult [artists] would ask him to move out of the way so they could get their stuff done. But people see how he works and how he works just as hard as them so now they'll ask 'how can I help you?' and he was then welcomed onto projects with other adults.

"From his attitude and talent I just knew he'd do it."

Terox, the youngest of four siblings, first tried spray paint work when he was around three-years-old at North East hip hop festival, The Bridge, his mum explained. But it wasn't until around two years ago that Keri decided that he was old enough to pursue his passion.

The mum-of four added: "He's been drawing and painting since he was about two. He would get so focused in it that you couldn't take the paints away from him. I've got photos of him sitting with a nappy on painting.

"About two years ago he started taking it more seriously. He's always wanted to spray paint but I've always felt he was a little bit too young. Once we let him have a spray can, that was it, he's taken over my house."

Terox started out by writing his name on cardboard before his parents allowed him to start practicing on wooden boards in the garden. He was then invited to work on a legal wall in Bishop Auckland alongside other local graffiti artists.

He will also soon appear on a CBBC show with Jamie Oliver's son Buddy, where the pair swap skills with each other. On Sunday, July 14, he will also be one of over 60 artists selling their work at the Baltic Art Car Boot Fair. And between 1 - 6 August Terox will host his first solo exhibition at the Bottleworks in Ouseburn, which will likely feature some of his signature "bubbles", which originated from a "happy mistake".

Keri said her son was creating a piece of a masked skull with a cap on and when he went to draw something on the cap it didn't go to plan. Terox realised that if he sprayed the can a certain way it would create the bubble effect, and his signature style was created.

Keri said: "I'm massively proud of him. He's got the work ethic of a grown up. He lives and breathes art. We'll be outside and he'll ask us to take a picture of something because it will make a good piece, he gets inspired so easily. We were out at a gallery and he got us to take a picture of a seagull and some bubbles because it reminded him of seagulls on the waves.

"A lot of the stuff he has done outside is weather related. We had really bad storms recently and because we're rural we had a lot of time when we didn't have any electricity. He spent a lot of time outside after and he said that it looked like there were bubbles dancing on the clouds where the rain was and that's how he ended up doing his piece for the Baltic. It's rain clouds after the storm and the bubbles look like drops on them."