Elyas Alavi is a poet, curator and visual artist with a multidisciplinary practice that spans painting, sculpture, installation, moving image, poetry and performance. His practice often examines the complex intersections of race, displacement, gender, religion, and sexuality accounting for hyper invisibilities and troubling received notions of culture and belonging. More specifically, my work complicates histories in the South West Asia and North Africa (SWANA) region and thinks through the links between the globalized condition, settler colonialism and who is implicated in mobility and displacement of Black and Brown bodies.
Numerous Australian SME galleries, ARIs and biennales including Sydney Biennale, ACE, Hyphenated Biennale, TarraWarra Biennale, Griffith University, Granville Arts Centre, Next Wave, Nexus, POP, UTS have commissioned Alavi. He is a recipient of the Samstag research fellowship that enabled me to further my professional practice with in situ time in London. A turning point in my career alongside his recent move to Melbourne involves landing a two-year studio residency at Gertrude Contemporary, with a solo exhibition
Alavi has also published three critically acclaimed poetry books. Translations of his poems appear in World Literature Today and PARSE Journal. He is the co-founder of Gholghola Collective and a member of ELEVEN Collective.
Alavi graduated with a Master of Visual Arts from the University of South Australia in 2016 and in 2020 completed a Master of Fine Arts at Chelsea College of Arts, University of London.
CV
Education
2020 Master of Fine Arts, Chelsea College of Arts, London
2016 Masters of Visual Arts, University of South Australia
2012 Bachelor of Visual Arts (Honours), University of South Australia
Select Solo Exhibitions
2023 دیگرگونه/Another Kind, Gertrude Glasshouse, Melbourne
2022 Not Just a Shadow (stage 2), POP Gallery, Adelaide
2022 Not Just a Shadow(stage 1), Hyphenated Biennale, Substation, Melbourne
2021 Beyond the Mountains and the Sea, Sauerbier House, Adelaide
2020 FIELD NOTES, Sauerbier House, Adelaide
2019 A Desolate Voice, M. Contemporary, Sydney
2019 Daydreamer Wolf (stage 3) ACE Open, Adelaide
2018 Daydreamer Wolf (stage 2), Firstdraft Gallery, Sydney
2018 Daydreamer Wolf 1, (NextWave Festival), Chapter House Lane, Melbourne
2017 Rag/Vein, Mohsen Gallery, Tehran
2017 We Die So That, Nexus Arts Gallery, Adelaide
2016 HALAL, Fontanelle Gallery, Adelaide
2015 Ordugah/Detention Camp, Mashad, Iran
2014 Derakht-e Bi Rishe, CACSA Project Space, Adelaide
Select Group Exhibitions
2023 Let the bād speak, Fonazione 107, Turin, Italy (curated by Exo Arts Lab)
2023 TarraWarra Biennial, TarraWarra Museum, VIC
2023 Destiny Disrupted, Griffith University Museum of Art, QLD
2022 20Years, Blacktown Arts Centre, NSW
2022 Destiny Disrupted, (Eleven Collective), Granville Centre Art Gallery, NSW
2022 67th Blake Prize finalist exhibition, Casula Powerhouse ArtsCentre, NSW
2022 An Obstinate Prophet, Performance at Neoteric exhibition, SA
2021 group exhibition at Constance ARI as part of Mona Foma Festival, Hobart
2021 Cameleers, (as part of Hyphenated Biennale), Footscray Arts Centre, VIC
2020 FIELD NOTES, Sauerbier House Gallery, SA
2020 Felt Exchange, collaboration with Yusuf Hayat, Felt Space Adelaide
2019 Tele-Tales, Robert Kananaj Gallery, Toronto
2019 Pretty Ugly, Cookhouse gallery, London
2018 Daneha/Seeds, Blacktown Arts Centre, Sydney
2017 The Invisible, UTS Gallery, Sydney
2017 Nimrouz, Niyavaran Art Gallery, Tehran
2017 Home thoughts from abroad, Praxis gallery
2017 Felt Space, Adelaide
2016 Jugglers Art Space Inc, Brisbane
2016 Home and Art, The Walker Street gallery, Melbourne
Book Publications
2015 Hodood, Poetry and drawing book, Nimaj publisher, Tehran
2011 Bazi Zakhmha(Some Wounds), Drawing & poetry book, Kabul
2012 I’m a Day-dreamer wolf, 2007, (5th edition in 2016), Tehran
Awards, Residencies, Grants
2023 Independent Makers and presenters Project Grants, Arts SA
2023 Project Grant, Australia Council for the Arts
2022 Guildhouse & FUMA Collection Project, Flinders University Museum of Art
2021 Sauerbier house residency, 3-month residency, South Australia
2020 Arts SA Fellowship for my project at the Hyphenated Biennale
2022 Project Grant, Australia Council for the Arts
2020 Catapult program recipient, Guildhouse
2019 International Samstag Scholarship award
2019 guest scholar at Chelsea College of Arts, London
2018 Next Wave Festival recipient, Melbourne
2018 Project Grant, Australia Council for the Arts
2018 Independent Makers and presenters Project Grants, Arts SA
2017 Helpmann Academy award
2017 Independent Makers & presenters Project Grants, Arts SA
2015 Fontanelle Studio Residency, Helpmann Academy
2014 Art, Higher Degree Research National Travel Award
2013 Australian Postgraduate Award (Full Scholarship)
2011 International Peace Poetry Prize (Simorgh), First prize
2009 The Annual Reporters Poetry Prize, Tehran, Iran
2009 Young Poets’ Book of the Year, Tehran Iran
Curating
2023 VASL, Kerry Packer Civic Gallery, Uni SA, Adelaide
2022 TIMELESS, VASL, Kerry Packer Civic Gallery, Uni SA, Adelaide
2021 CONTACT, Kerry Packer Civic Gallery, This exhibition won the Bank (Best Visual Art & Design Adelaide Fringe Award)
2019 Cultivate, Kerry Packer Civic Gallery, Adelaide
2017 Fly Away, Kerry Packer gallery & Nexus Arts
2014 Marzaha/Borders, Nexus gallery, Adelaide
Teaching Experience
2017-22 Art facilitator, Neami National, Adelaide
2017 DreamBig Children Festival, Artist in school residency
2017 Pom Pom (Carclew in Elizabeth)
2017 Artist in school residency program at Darlington school
2016 Art & poetry workshops at STTARS