Elyas Alavi is a multi-disciplinary visual artist based in Adelaide, South Australia. He is primarily working in the form of painting, installation, performance art and recently video art. Alavi was born in Daikundi province, Afghanistan, and moved to Iran as a child, following the intensification of war in his homeland and in late 2007 he moved to Australia as refugee at risk.
Elyas Alavi graduated from a Masters by Research (Visual Arts) in 2015 and a Bachelor of Visual Arts (Honours) in 2012 at the University of South Australia and has exhibited nationally and internationally including Mohsen Gallery (Tehran), UTS Art (Sydney), Jugglers Art Space (Brisbane), IFA Gallery (Kabul), St Heliers Gallery (Melbourne), Nexus Arts, CACSA Project Space (Adelaide).
Alavi also is best known as an internationally renowned poet. He published 3 poetry books in Iran and Afghanistan. First poetry book "I'm a daydreamer wolf" published in 2008 in Tehran (5th edition in 2016), followed by "Some wounds" in 2012 in Kabul and "Hodood" in 2015 in Tehran.
Alavi visits many issues in his works, but mainly memory, migration, displacement, exile, gender issues, separation and the human nature. The main part of his work as an artist reflects upon his Hazara background (a marginalised ethnic group originally from Afghanistan) as he uses his particular experiences and contemplations as an epistemological model for the dislocation of peoples. This auto ethnographic approach offers a representative perspective for other displaced people and contributes to a deepening knowledge of the refugee and migration experience.
Alavi regularly runs art and poetry workshops in community centres and schools in Adelaide.
