Bobby Benjamin is an artist based in Teesside. Working primarily in found materials, he makes paintings and sculptures exploring themes of class, masculine identity, and place. His use of found objects acts as a creative restraint within which he addresses the voyeuristic relationship between the arts as an industry, and the working/underclass. He challenges cultural hegemony and hierarchical perceptions of culture while embracing the history of found objects and the materiality of paint. 

Bobby was born in Middlesbrough in 1983 where he lives and works. He studied for a National Diploma in Photography at The Northern School of Art, and BA Hons in Fine Art at Teesside University, Middlesbrough, graduating in 2013. In 2019 he completed an MA in Fine Art from MIMA School of Arts & Creative Industries. His exhibitions include ‘Major Conversations: The Industrial Narrative’, Platform A Gallery, Middlesbrough, touring to The Turnpike Gallery, Leigh, ‘Legacy – 50 years of Painting in the Tees Valley’, The Auxiliary, Middlesbrough (2019), ‘GIBBO IS GOD’, ARC, Stockton (2021), ‘DEERO’, Pineapple Black, Middlesbrough (2022) and ‘Object’, Vane, Gateshead.  

Benjamin is the youngest of eight brothers and grew up in a low-income household in the coastal town of Redcar. He moved to Middlesbrough to pursue a career in the arts at the age of 25, inspired by his first ever visit to a contemporary art gallery. He is a keen advocate of the role art has to play in the lives of young people and their communities, having worked with the National Saturday Club at MIMA, Borderlands and the MFC Foundation. 

In 2014 he launched his first gallery, The House of Blah Blah, in Middlesbrough, followed in 2015 by the launch of Dovetail Joints arts organisation. In 2018 Benjamin launched the gallery, Pineapple Black, where he is currently co-director. He is also a part-time lecturer at MIMA School of Art & Creative Industries and Teesside University, Middlesbrough, and is a member of Bolton University’s Industry Advisory Committee.

For Middlesbrough Art Weekender Bobby has been commissioned to create new work around the theme power POWER, that creates a dialogue with Gordon Matta-Clark Fake Estates project, critiquing urban structures and ideas of ownership, from a Teesiders perspective.

Instagram: @bobbybenjamin