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Mat Ali graduated from UiTM Shah Alam with a Bachelor of Fine Art in 1998. Mat Ali uses sculpture as a vehicle to share his knowledge and enthusiasm of silat. He has learnt the martial art, studied its history and moves, and it has been a topic of fascination for the artist since watching a television documentary on the keris (a symbol and weapon for silat practitioners). Mat Ali has since painstakingly built up his abilities in the act of shaping metal and has taken it to new heights, pushing boundaries in the level of detail and complexities produced in his intricate studies of the human figure.

Since 2009, Mat Ali has had a number of shows at prominent galleries in Malaysia. He participated in ‘Young and New’ at House of Matahati in 2009 and later that year had his solo show ‘Dendam Tak Sudah’ at Metro Fine Art Gallery. Other shows include ‘Artriangle’ at National Art Gallery Malaysia in 2010, while 2012 has been Mat Ali’s busiest, showing his works at ‘A Meter Diameter’ at House of Matahati, ‘Lineage’ at Art Accent Gallery, ‘Pameran Pelukis Selangor’ at Galeri Shah Alam as well as at the grand opening of Rossella Gallery in Singapore.

As in all of Mat Ali’s works, Toh Gajah is made up of a silat warrior with bulging muscles and veins especially on the hands and feet, captivating in its minute detail and revealing to viewers the artist’s preoccupation with muscular contortions. The warrior is in a pose that indicates readiness of movement - neither defensive nor aggressive - but is as if the warrior is contemplating his next move while holding a shield and keris, which Mat Ali has taken great pains to depict in accurate detail. Undoubtedly, it is an example of the artist at his finest. Part of his solo exhibition entitled ‘Unsung Heroes’, it shows a few marked differences from Mat Ali’s earlier sculptures. Where previously the clothing of his warriors were indistinct and their faces without expression or depicted as blocks without particular features, this sculpture clearly shows a fabric around his waist with wrinkles and flow of movement, as well as pronounced facial features demonstrating the artists development and increasing adeptness in working with his material of choice.