Cinzah Merkens is a New Zealand based multidisciplinary artist. He is one of the founders of the New Zealand 'Street Art' scene, originally starting out putting up paste-ups, stickers, and painting character-based works around New Zealand and Australia in the early 2000’s. He was one of a handful that created public works honouring the graffiti scene that came before this alternate direction of non letter-based graffiti.
Cinzah has moved on to paint at art festivals around the world, has fostered a career as an award-winning illustrator, run an art gallery, curated several successful exhibitions, popped out a couple of kids, and left the big smoke for a more relaxed pace of life in the sunny Hawkes Bay.
Cinzah paints from and for his environment, with a strong sense of colour, movement and balance. Exploring themes such as the interrelationship between man and nature, duality, mythology and storytelling. Cinzah has exhibited extensively throughout New Zealand and Australia, also showing work in group shows, festivals and mural productions in Mexico, North America, Japan, and South East Asia. He still regularly paints murals, exhibits his fine art, and is now tattooing at the renowned Hawkes Bay based studio El Vardo Tattoo.
