What's Keinom?
Keinom is the alter-ego or pseudonym of me - Nicholas Ganz. I was born in the early months of 1976 in the heart of the Ruhrgebiet in Essen, Germany. Since the mid ‘90s I am doing graffiti in the streets and simultaneously took photos of my own works and the graffiti of other people. It was the basis of my present artistic work.
In 1997 I wanted to create a special graffiti name for myself, that had no direct meaning by choosing a word from the dictionary. So I took some of my most preferred letters and created a name, that had no concrete meaning - Keinom. Keinom describes my artistic work and the world from where I take my inspiration, where I take refuge in and where I create my philosophy.
My graffiti photo-archive from the early years, when I painted in the streets myself, was the basis to start my first book Graffiti World and to collect graffiti art from all over the world to present them in this book.
Graffiti Woman was a natural follower of my first graffiti book, as I discovered the lack of female artists in publications and so I filled this gap with my book.
Since the past years I am mostly working with my photo-cameras and rarely paint in the streets myself. My focus has been on documenting the social situations of ordinary people, their struggles and resistance movements. I have found my destinations quite often in Asia, where I first was very fascinated by the beautiful but troubled Burma and it’s lovely people. From my travels into this country with co-author Elena Jotow we have written our book Burma – the alternative guide.
Currently I am still stuck in Asia to dive deeper into the diverse cultures, ethnic peoples and various problems and crisis.
Keinom is the alter-ego or pseudonym of me - Nicholas Ganz. I was born in the early months of 1976 in the heart of the Ruhrgebiet in Essen, Germany. Since the mid ‘90s I am doing graffiti in the streets and simultaneously took photos of my own works and the graffiti of other people. It was the basis of my present artistic work.
In 1997 I wanted to create a special graffiti name for myself, that had no direct meaning by choosing a word from the dictionary. So I took some of my most preferred letters and created a name, that had no concrete meaning - Keinom. Keinom describes my artistic work and the world from where I take my inspiration, where I take refuge in and where I create my philosophy.
My graffiti photo-archive from the early years, when I painted in the streets myself, was the basis to start my first book Graffiti World and to collect graffiti art from all over the world to present them in this book.
Graffiti Woman was a natural follower of my first graffiti book, as I discovered the lack of female artists in publications and so I filled this gap with my book.
Since the past years I am mostly working with my photo-cameras and rarely paint in the streets myself. My focus has been on documenting the social situations of ordinary people, their struggles and resistance movements. I have found my destinations quite often in Asia, where I first was very fascinated by the beautiful but troubled Burma and it’s lovely people. From my travels into this country with co-author Elena Jotow we have written our book Burma – the alternative guide.
Currently I am still stuck in Asia to dive deeper into the diverse cultures, ethnic peoples and various problems and crisis.