Benjamin Rostance is a working class artist, born and based in Nottingham, England. His context is currently concerned with themes of mental health, coping mechanisms and recovery. 

 

          Rostance reflects on his lived experience of childhood trauma, mirrored by his lived experience of being an adult survivor of child abuse. The relationship between the inner child, seeking to have acceptance and understanding and the adult in recovery is what Rostance interprets to make his art. In his artworks, Rostance attempts to accurately and honestly reflect his experience of growing up in a large, poor, working class family, as the youngest child, making space for others who may have experienced such trauma in their lifetime.

 

          Benjamin continues, wherever possible, to spend as little as possible on materials and technology, always respecting his inner child’s lack of access to finance’s or resources available to them as a child, believing that any artworks made should accurately represent both states of mind that are present when making the work. The adult survivor and inner child. 

         

          Rostance’s wider context and practice aim to reveal thoughts about trauma, in particular, the survival of trauma and it’s effects on the developmental brain during the a child informative years. Rostance invites the audience to engage with coping mechanisms and examine the ones that feature withing the context of his art for themselves to adopt or simply to study.

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            Benjamin was accepted into the New Contemporaries 2021 and has exhibited in galleries, including The South London Gallery, Firstsite Colchester, Backlit Gallery and the New Art Exchange in Nottingham, alongside live performances at events such as DRIP Liverpool and SLAP Nottingham. Rostance continues to facilitate free workshops, open to the public to share skills and knowledge around fine art in his hometown of Nottingham.