Welcome on the website of Karim Van Engeland

I was born in 1980 in Belgium, to a Belgian father and an Iranian mother. I grew up in Brussels. Thanks to my teachers, I became aware of the field of art very early on. We visited the Brussels museums. During lessons, we worked with paint. Everything was done to awaken the students' awareness of the world around them.

We left Brussels for Paris in 1993. We left our bags in Meudon, before moving to Paris in 1995. My school career in France turned out to be chaotic. I changed schools regularly. I must have attended 7 or 8 schools.

It was at the age of 16, following a succession of encounters, that I began to express myself on the walls of Paris and in the metro: Tags, graffitis,… My artist name was Keez. In 1996, I entered the group V.13 (Vandals of the Thirteenth). In 1997, I saw my friends from Meudon again. Hip-hop had become their religion. I then joined the VF group (Val Fleury). At that time I was doing a lot of graffiti. I started writing my lyrics, rapping them and making instrumentals.

In 1997, I left school. I resumed my studies at the age of 20, in 2000. I passed my baccalaureate in 2001 with the Center for Distance Education (CNED). I enrolled at university in Art History. I had to stop my studies in the second year of my degree. I didn't return to my studies until much later. I will obtain a License in Plastic Arts and Art Science at the Sorbonne (still with the CNED).

In 2009, I became interested in photography. I bought my first camera, a Nikon D60. I started working on a series about Paris and Parisians. I also became interested in abstract painting, no longer on city walls, but on canvases. I got back into drawing and also started practicing collage.

In 2022, I started writing a collection of poems and I wrote some song lyrics for French variety. Today, I am looking for one or more artists to sing them. I continue to write, rap, take photographs, draw, paint and collage.