RIYADH: Using heavy industrial materials as a canvas may be unconventional to some, but to Bahraini painter Salman Alnajem, it is the perfect backdrop for his exploration of ancient civilizations, technology, religion, and mythology. For the latest updates, follow us on Instagram @arabnews.lifestyle The artist has exhibited his works in solo and group exhibitions in Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the UK, France and Italy and holds a master’s in fine art from London’s Royal College of Art. In his most recent project, “Cosmic Perspectives,” Alnajem painted a series of small and mid-scale artworks bursting with color. “I"m making these paintings on steel that have a lot of these religious references … I aim to find remnants and clues of ancient-advanced-civilisations that seemingly were capable of building the most magnificent monolithic monuments to learn from the wisdom of the past, to bring it into the present, to create a better future.” Alnajem’s artwork explores “a vast amount of knowledge that is encrypted in ancient symbols.” “Trying to find answers to how and why the Pyramids, Stonehenge and countless other monolithic sites were built. How did the ancients have such a comprehensive understanding of architecture, astronomy and astrology? In doing so I keep finding connections, and similarities between disparate ancient cultures that are hundreds of years and kilometres apart. Almost as if they are telling the same story, in different languages,” the artist said. Alnajem’s painting process begins with compiling images from his research which he turns into a collage-like digital sketch. “These images are then arranged in a process that is similar to abstract painting. Usually an abstract painter’s first mark abstractly informs the next. In my process the placement of a symbol informs, indicates, and inspires the next.” Coining his own artistic style called “abstract symbolism,” Al-Najem said he disentangles and assembles complex societal, mythological, and spiritual matters to present them in a simple-compositionally-harmonic way. “I do so by creating complex paintings using simple-common symbols from popular culture, contemporary life and antiquity.” For Alnajem, painting isn’t about making aesthetically pleasing pictures, but a way to create energy. “My art is not something the viewer should ‘get.’ The artwork’s role is to ‘get’ the viewer ... when we look at a piece of art, we agree to open our minds to receive it. Art makes us more sensitive, when an artist is able to create small details that draw us in, to lean into the painting, that"s us being a little more sensitive. Art, in its truest form, is an expression of the soul.”