Ben Kinsella’s artwork, including a piece he painted just three months before his death, is on display at Grove Gallery in west London.
The collection, running from March 17th to April 17th, features a letter Ben wrote to the Prime Minister just months before he was murdered in 2008.
ITV News spoke to his sister, Brooke Kinsella, who attended the exhibition and left a handprint on a painting of doves – symbols that Ben had used in his GCSE artwork.
She said: “Ben did so many wonderful art pieces,”
“One of the last things he did was this bird symbol. Throughout history, the bird has been a sign of hope and peace, and that’s what we try to do as a trust in his name – create peace for young people and give hope that we can make a difference.”
Ben was 16 when he was stabbed while celebrating the end of his exams in Islington. He was the 17th teenager to be killed in London that year.
By the end of 2008, 29 young people had lost their lives. The highest number of teenage killings was recorded in 2021, when 30 were murdered.
Brooke said that ‘it’s really hard’ to hear of others losing their lives to knife crime.
She said: “Every time I hear that anybody is lost to knife crime, let alone the younger generation, because as a family, we know every stage of what they will be going from – from getting that very first phone call to what you then need to do in the immediate aftermath of it.
“They’re not just numbers and statistics to us, they are people and we know what the ones that are left behind are going through. So it’s really, really hard. It’s hard.”
Brooke was among the families of knife crime victims who recently met the Prime Minister Keir Starmer alongside actor Idris Elba. They spoke about a letter Ben had written to then-Prime Minister Gordon Brown, raising concerns about youth violence.
“He was 16, and he said how worried he was about our youth,” she said.
Sixteen years after her brother’s death, Brooke said knife crime will only end if everyone takes responsibility.
“There is no one answer. That much I know. It takes a collective community.
“It takes everybody to come together to do their bit to stop this happening. You can see the emotion in these [art] pieces and actually, sometimes it might resonate with an audience in a way that other formats haven’t so far.
“So I think just trying anything we can to get the message across is all we can do.”
Ben had originally wanted to be an actor but had set his sights on a career in graphic design.
His work is now being featured in an exhibition by the artist Aidan Phelan, whose own pieces explore darker themes.
“My work tells a slightly darker story, but the great thing about this is we can put a positive note on something so negative. And that was Ben’s message,” he said.
The Kinsella trust continues to work alongside other charities to help prevent knife crime and other causes of teenage killings.
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