Elyas Alavi
Elyas Alavi is a Naarm/Melbourne-based visual artist, poet, and curator originally from Afghanistan.
Elyas Alavi’s multidisciplinary practice spans painting, sculpture, installation, moving image, poetry, and performance. His work critically engages with themes of race, displacement, gender, religion, and sexuality, addressing hyper-invisibilities and challenging conventional notions of culture and belonging. Alavi’s practice frequently interrogates histories of the South West Asia and North Africa (SWANA) region, exploring their entanglements with globalisation, settler colonialism, and the mobility and displacement of Black and Brown bodies.
Recent solo exhibitions include علم ALAM at 4A Centre for Contemporary Asian Art in Sydney, Sound of Silence (#1) at UNSW Galleries as part of the 24th Sydney Biennale, That I Could Fear a Door: storie di case e di vento at MUSMA Museum in Matera, Italy, and دیگرگونه , Another Kind at Gertrude Glasshouse in Melbourne. He also exhibited at the 3rd Lahore Biennale in Lahore, Pakistan. Recent group exhibitions include Odalala at Arts House, The 68th Blake Art Prize at Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Incinerator Art Award: Art for Social Change at Incinerator Gallery, Reesha at Blindside ari, and Gertrude Studios 2024 at Gertrude Gallery. Other group exhibitions include the TarraWarra Biennial at TarraWarra Museum of Art in Victoria, Destiny Disrupted at Griffith University Museum of Art in Queensland and Let the bād speak at Fondazione 107 in Turin, Italy.
Alavi has been commissioned by a number of galleries, artist-run initiatives, and biennales, including the Sydney Biennale, Art Jameel, Lahore Biennale, ACE, TarraWarra Biennale, Griffith University, Hyphenated Biennale, Granville Arts Centre, Next Wave, Nexus Arts and POP. His work is held in multiple public and private collections.
Alongside his visual arts practice, Alavi is an acclaimed poet and has published three collections. Some of his poems have been translated into English, Greek, Urdu, Kurdish, and Spanish. His writing has been featured in prominent publications such as World Literature Today, EastEast and the PARSE Journal.
Alavi holds a Master of Visual Arts from the University of South Australia and a Master of Fine Arts from Chelsea College of Arts at the University of London.
In this interview, Alavi reflects on the impact of moving to Naarm/Melbourne, the importance of artistic networks, and the ways in which NAVA’s Code has supported his career, particularly in advocating for equitable payment and good practices.
Video production by Atypical 2024.
Photo by Machiko Abe, courtesy of Gertrude Contemporary.
ID: Photograph of Elyas Alavi in a light-filled studio with high ceilings and white walls. A large wooden table in the center is covered with art materials, including brushes, paint, and sketchbooks. Several artworks, including paintings and prints, are displayed on the walls and leaning against surfaces. He is wearing a dark shirt and pants and is sitting on a chair in the centre of the frame.
About NAVA
The National Association for the Visual Arts (NAVA) is a Membership organisation that brings together the many voices of the contemporary arts sector to improve fundamental conditions of work and practice. We do this through advocacy, education and the Code of Practice. For further information on NAVA visit www.visualarts.net.au
