This 21-year-old Bahraini, who designed this month’s BTM cover, studied graphic design at University College of Bahrain, but his creative passion goes back much further than that, to his early teens.
He explains: “When I was around 13 or 14, I used to draw car images and people would ask me to draw for them, that’s where my creativity was spawned. I stopped for a while but, when I went to university to study graphic design, I had to brush up my drawing skills.
“In art history we learned about artists like Picasso and Dali and how they defined themselves with a specific style, that’s when I started using triangulation [a way of creating images based on triangles] – it was initially just to brush up my skills but it turned into something bigger.”
That something bigger came about when he showed his work in pop-art style, using dots to create the images, at the island’s annual IGN Convention (which covers all things gaming and anime) back in 2014. His pieces, both as artworks and T-shirt prints, were a great hit and, from there, he began to build up a following.
He created his own initial business, Triangulationstore, printing his works onto items from clothing to mugs and posting his designs on Instagram, where he now has that impressive 37,500 followers from Canada to Russia and beyond.
He sells his own work through the store but he also wanted to help other local artists to gain a wider audience and decided to set up Art Hub, an online gallery space, where creatives can show and sell their work which can be printed onto various mediums through the hub. Currently there are 10 other artists on the books and Elias aims to grow the business by engaging more people who want to get their work out there.
He says: “It’s a unique kind of art apparel and printing company where people can read about the artists, look through their work and then choose the design they would like to have.”
And he is also still busy with his own artworks. He has just completed a show at Malja, where he used his triangulation technique to produce stunning images created on dark backgrounds with luminous dots.
He says: “This, for me, was a personal journey. It’s the sun and the moon, like two people who can’t be together apart from when there’s an eclipse. The series goes through the story of how to heal yourself when you’re separated from someone you’re close to. It’s something everyone can relate to. I wanted to do something unique and went for glow in the dark, which ties in with the whole idea of the Universe, space and the sun and the moon.”
For the future, his plan is to get Art Hub more established and have his own solo exhibition, mounted in black light using the 15 pieces from the sun and moon series.
See Elias’ work at instagram@EliasMadan or on www.arthubbh.com
