Kenji O.A.M. was born in Lima, Peru, in 1966. He studied literature, theater, and philosophy in Cuba and Chile and came to Berlin after the fall of the Berlin Wall. He was part of «Wild Berlin», the underground scene with squats, illegal clubs, and improvised studios. He lived underground for almost 25 years, partly under different identities: first under the pseudonym «Heimatlose Volkskunst», then «Arte Popular Apatrida», both ironic references to his illegal status. The failed attempt to launch himself on the art market with dubious galleries ran under the name Kenno Apatrida (Apatrida means «stateless» in Spanish). Today, he is called Kenji by everyone, a name he shaped into «Kenji O.A.M». «O.A.M.» stands for Outsider Art Museum, which refers both to his social status and to the diction of his art.

His outsider art embodies indigenous patterns, incorporating elements taken from the street art as used by Keith Haring, the neo-expressionism of Anselm Kiefer, and even the expressive aesthetics of Jean-Michel Basquiat. What all his works have in common is the use of experimental materials, leftovers, and a process that sometimes involves him working excessively on individual pieces for years to constantly develop them further, almost like a kind of «social sculpture» in the spirit of Joseph Beuys.