Youth no bar to success in Baltic Open Submission 2026
Why Taye leads the way
Some people come to art late in life but a young man who styles himself Terox was smitten before he could grip a pencil.
He won’t remember but his mother does, recalling how he would make pictures with fat crayons clenched in his fists.
“He got a graffiti book when he was two and used to carry it round with him,” recalls Keri Benjamin.
“His dad (Jae) used to take him to look at the street art in Newcastle and that’s how it started.”
As a toddler, she reveals, he also drew a stick figure portrait on the back of a white sofa. “He said it was me so I couldn’t tell him off.”
We’re talking at Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art where Terox is to be one of the judges at this year’s Open Submission exhibition.
It comes round every two years and this is the third.
Open to amateurs and professionals, and embracing all forms of artistic expression, the chance to exhibit in one of the country’s major galleries has proved to be a big attraction.
Rose McMurray, an assistant curator at Baltic and heavily involved in this year’s Open Submission and the last, says more than 1,400 artworks were submitted in 2024 of which about 10% made the cut.
The selectors didn’t know the names or ages of the artists whose work they were assessing so couldn’t know one picture was the work of an 11-year-old.
Taye Benjamin, who chose Terox as his ‘tag’ in a nod to his other passion of beatboxing, remembers his picture had bands of colour arranged “in a cool wavy pattern like clouds… and there were these little bubbles on it”.
Getting the thumbs up, it took its place among paintings, photographs and sculptures submitted by many more mature artists, some with years of professional experience under their belts.
To Taye/Terox it was a galvanising moment.
“As soon as Baltic messaged me and said they wanted to take it, I thought I want to start doing this as a career,” he says.
“It’s hard to explain but it was like, if I’m being noticed this much then I want to pursue it.”
Now aged 13, it’s early to be thinking of careers but Taye would seem to be on course.
He has had two exhibitions at the BottleWorks gallery in Newcastle’s Ouseburn Valley (there’s to be another in August) and has done eye-catching murals in Newcastle and Redcar. “Commissioned, of course,” he points out.
He has around 12,000 followers on Instagram and his work has found buyers.
The first piece he sold was the one selected for the last Baltic Open Submission exhibition which was snapped up by a collector at the reception ahead of the opening.
Remarkably, it was the first spray-painted piece he had done… and something of an eye-opener for his parents.
Keri explains: “He’d been asking for spray paints for years and we kept dismissing it and buying children’s paint and crayons.
“Finally, his dad bought him five cans and he spray-painted this piece and it ended up in the Baltic and then was sold. After that, we had to say, ‘OK you can have more cans’.”
All this has led to Terox’s involvement this year as selector, the decision having been made to introduce a youth category for the Open Submission aimed at artists aged 11 to 17.
“We always try to have a celebrity element to the panel because it encourages people to submit,” says Rose.
“For the senior category we have painters Rachel and Laura Lancaster, who recently exhibited on Level 3 at Baltic, and Will Hughes who was Tees Valley artist of the year for 2025.
“We knew they would be great for the 18+ category and we thought Terox would be absolutely perfect for the younger ones.
“Already we’ve seen an amazing reaction on social media. People seem to be really excited that he’s on the panel.”
Terox will share the judging of this category with the Young Producers group, teenagers who gather at Baltic once a month to gain experience of the art world by getting involved.
Currently they’re building towards their own August event called Something Like a Festival but, like Terox, they’re preparing to put on their selectors’ hats – or at least some of them are, having been given the option to submit work or join the selection panel.
From the artists whose work is selected, one will be chosen for the Fenwick Award, giving the winner a chance to exhibit at the flagship store on Newcastle’s Northumberland Street.
An awful lot is at stake and Terox, for one, is not taking his duties lightly. He has prepared a short statement for me.
“I’m honoured to be invited to join the panel. To evaluate another’s vision is a profound weight. It’s a privilege to play even a small part in elevating the next wave of emerging artists in our region.”
He has also brought along a portrait, done in acrylic paint, of his 16-year-old sister, Kenya.
He says he likes doing portraits and also street art. He is looking forward to embarking on his GCSE art course next year but is also excited about doing design and technology, hoping it will be a route into sculpture.
But he says he is “super-excited” about the judging role that precedes all that.
What, in his view, makes a good piece of art?
He considers the question. “If I see something I like, there will be a connection,” he says. “It’ll have something that pulls me towards it.
“A good piece of art, I’d say, is full of creativity and expresses what the artist intended.”
Towards the end of our chat, Keri reveals that her son is colourblind. Wow! How was this discovered?
Terox, laughing, says he thinks I’m going to consider this a very bad answer – but he went to the optician who told him.
He does remember: “I was doing a mural called Rhythm & Blue and the lady in the gallery said it was purple.”
He’s pretty sure some famous artists have been similarly inflicted, although that hardly seems the right word since he has never been short of plaudits for his work.
Now, as he says, he has a golden opportunity to elevate others coming along behind.
Selection for this hugely popular exhibition is going to put all the chosen artists on a pedestal.
Submissions to Baltic Open Submission 2026 can be made via the Baltic website until 10am on June 16.
The exhibition will open on September 19 in Baltic’s ground floor gallery and run until May next year.