Steve Sabella (Jerusalem, 1975), is a Berlin-based artist who uses photography and photographic installation as his primary means of expression. From the end of the 1990s until 2007 Sabella remained in Jerusalem and exhibited his works in Palestine and in international exhibitions. After the Israeli separation barrier was approved in July 2006, he decided to leave Jerusalem and talk about the experience of exile and its acceptance through his multimedia photography.
Steve Sabella, born 1975 in Jerusalem, Palestine, is a Berlin-based artist who uses photography and photographic installation as his principal modes of expression. In 1997 he earned a three-year art photography degree at the Musrara School of Photography in Jerusalem. In 2007 he received a BA in Visual Studies at Empire State College of the State University of New York. Through a Chevening Scholarship he earned an MA in Photographic Studies in 2008 at the University of Westminster with a Caparo Award of Distinction, and through a Saïd Foundation Scholarship he earned his second MA in art business in 2009 at Sotheby’s Institute of Art.
Sabella was one of the winners of the A. M. Qattan Foundation’s Young Artist of the Year Award in 2002. He was a shortlisted and exhibited artist in the 2008 Independent Photographers Terry O’Neil Award in the United Kingdom. He received the 2008 Ellen Auerbach Award from the Akademie der Künste in Berlin, which included in part the publishing of Sabella’s 2014 monograph.
From the late 1990s through 2007 Sabella was based in Jerusalem and exhibited internationally as well as extensively throughout Palestine, including eleven solos. He was one of the commissioned artists for the Istanbul Collection donated to the Ars Aevi Museum of Contemporary Art in Sarajevo. In 2009 he was one of the commissioned artists for the inauguration of Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha, where he presented the installation Settlement––Six Israelis & One Palestinian. His work was included in the show Keep Your Eyes on the Wall as a part of Les rencontres d’Arles photographie, Edition 2013, and in 2014 he participated in the FotoFest Biennial exhibition View from Inside. In 2014 he was commissioned by the Bahrain National Museum, where he presented his photographic series Sinopia as part of the touring exhibition Recreational Purpose.
His works have been collected by the British Museum in London; Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha; Contemporary Art Platform in Kuwait; Ars Aevi Museum of Contemporary Art in Sarajevo; Cuadro Fine Art Gallery in Dubai; the Salsali Private Museum in Dubai; the Barjeel Art Foundation in Sharjah; and the Samawi Collection in Dubai; as well as being acquired by several private collections.
Sabella has given art talks and presentations at various institutions, including the University of Cambridge; Turin University; the School of Oriental and African Studies in London; University of East London; Accademia Albertina di Belle Arti di Torino in Turin; Contemporary Art Platform in Kuwait; Rostock University; Akademie der Künste in Berlin; The British Museum; and The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.
Among the several TV documentaries and short films on Sabella’s work are Jerusalem in Exile and Kan Yama Kan, two episodes in the documentary project Beyond Blue & Gray by Eyes Infinite Films (2007); Europe through Their Eyes by Ma’an TV Productions (2010); Artist of the Month, aired on IkonoMENASA (2011); Artist of the Month featured on IkonoTV (2013); Arts InSight: Who is Steve Sabella? produced by Ernie Manouse (2014); and In the Darkroom with Steve Sabella by Nadia J. Kabalan (2014). He also appeared as an invited speaker at TEDx Marrakech (2012).
Sabella has published numerous essays, including several as a regular contributor to Contemporary Practices journal, such as Palestinian Conceptual Art, Emily Jacir Shifting to an Art that Engages the Mind of the Viewer (2009), Is the United Arab Emirates Constructing its Art History? The Mechanisms that Confer Value to Art (2009), ‘Valued’ in the ‘West’ Sold in the ‘East’ (2010), Reconsidering the Value of Palestinian Art & Its Journey to the Art Market (Part 1, 2010; Part 2, 2011), The Business of Looking (2011), and The Colonization of the Imagination (2012). Sabella’s essay Hostage (2014) was published by Phaidon in From Galilee to Negev by Stephen Shore. In 2016 he published his memoir The Parachute Paradox, which won the 2016 Nautilus Book Awards and the 2017 Eric Hoffer Award. His autobiography, titled The Artist’s Curse, is forthcoming.
Solo exhibitions
2018 Evolution, Art Paris Art Fair, Grande Palais, Paris, France
Wavelengths, Metroquadro Gallery, Turin, Italy
2017 Fragments from our Beautiful Future, double solo show, The Bumiller Collection, Berlin, Germany
2016 Steve Sabella – The Parachute Paradox, Contemporary Art Platform, Kuwait City, Kuwait
2014 Fragments, Berloni Gallery, London, UK
Layers, Contemporary Art Platform, Kuwait City, Kuwait
Archeology of the Future, Boxart Gallery at the Museo Scavi Scaligeri, Verona, Italy
Independence, Meem Gallery, Dubai, UAE
2011 Euphoria & Beyond, The Empty Quarter Gallery, Dubai, UAE
2010 Steve Sabella: In Exile, Metroquadro Gallery, Rivoli (Turin), Italy
2005 Kan Yama Kan & Till the End, French Cultural Center, Jerusalem, Israel
Kan Yama Kan & Till the End, Franco-German Cultural Center, Ramallah, Palestine
2004 End of Days, Al-Kahf Gallery, International Center of Bethlehem, Bethlehem, Palestine
End of Days, Faculty of Fine Arts, Al Najah University, Nablus, Palestine
2003 End of Days, French Cultural Center, Jerusalem, Israel
End of Days, French Cultural Center, Gaza, Palestine
End of Days, Al-Hallaj Gallery, Ramallah, Palestine
2002 Search, Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center, Ramallah, Palestine
Identity, Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center, Ramallah Palestine
Life is Splendid, Artothèque de Montreal Gallery, Montreal, Canada
1998 Moment of Truth, French Cultural Center, Jerusalem, Israel
Selected group exhibitions
2018 Beirut Spring Festival, Beirut, Lebanon
Un œil ouvert sur le monde arabe, Institute du Monde Arabe, Paris, France
2017 Lady Dada Kalem, Kunsthaus KuLe, Berlin, Germany
Athens Photo Fest – Photobook Festival, Benaki Museum Pireos Annexe, Athens, Greece
2016 Inaugurazione nuova sede a Torino, Metroquadro, Turin, Italy
After the Last Sky, Ballhaus Naunystrasse, Berlin, Germany
The Country of Last Things, Art-Lab Berlin, Berlin, Germany
2015 View from Inside: Contemporary Arab Video, Photography, and Mixed Media, Abu Dhabi Festival, Emirates Palace Gallery, Abu Dhabi, UAE
1st Biennial of Arab Photographs, Arab World Institute, Paris, France
2014 Keep Your Eye on the Wall, Contemporary Art Platform CAP, Kuwait City, Kuwait
View from Inside: Contemporary Arab Video, Photography, and Mixed Media, FotoFest Biennial, Houston, Texas, USA
Recreational Purpose, Bahrain National Museum, Manama, Bahrain
Bridge to Palestine, Mark Hachem Gallery at the Beirut Exhibition Center, Beirut, Lebanon
2013 Berlin, Israel/Palestine or How Will a New Mindset Be Possible, Sprechsaal, Berlin, Germany
Keep Your Eye on the Wall, Les rencontres Arles photographie, Arles, France
Keep Your Eye on the Wall, Photoquai 2013 Biennale, Espace Central Dupon, Paris, France
2012 The Changing Room, Arab Reflections on Praxis and Times, London 2012 Olympic Cultural Program, Hub Westminster, London, UK
2011 The Changing Room: Arab Reflections on Praxis and Times, Spazio Qubi, Turin, Italy
2010 Palestine, La création dans tous ses états, National Museum of Bahrain, Manama, Bahrain
This is Not a Love Song, The Empty Quarter Gallery, Dubai, UAE
Young Academy, Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Germany
The Interrupted Image, Nicholas Robinson Gallery, New York, USA
Borderlines, Deconstructing Exile, Green Art Gallery, Dubai, UAE
Residua, Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah, UAE
Told, Untold, Retold, Mathaf Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, Qatar
2009 The Independent Photographers Terry O’Neil Award Exhibition, Independent Photographers Gallery, East Sussex, UK
Deconstructing Myths & Realities, Galerie Caprice Horn, Berlin, Germany
Palestine: La création dans tous ses états, Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, France
NOW: Art of the 21st Century, Phillips de Pury, London, UK
2008 Gates of the Mediterranean, Palazzo Piozzo, Rivoli (Turin), Italy
SKIP INTRO, P3 Gallery, London, UK
Neighbors in Dialogue, Istanbul Collection for Ars Aevi Museum of Contemporary Art in Sarajevo, Collegium Artisticum City Gallery, Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina
The Independent Photographers Terry O’Neil Award Exhibition, Fulham Palace, London, UK
2007 Neighbors in Dialogue, Istanbul Collection for Ars Aevi Museum of Contemporary Art in Sarajevo, Istanbul, Turkey
Challenging Walls, Walkscreen, projection on the Separation Wall, Jerusalem, Israel
2006 Art in a Social Context, Boomerang Theatre, Cork, Ireland
2005 At Home, Abrons Arts Center, New York, USA
Shaping Communities in Times of Crisis: Narratives of Land, Peoples and Identities, International Center of Bethlehem, Bethlehem, Palestine
2004 Frankfurt Book Fair as part of the Palestinian Ministry of Culture Exhibition, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
2003 Mind, Body, & Soul, ARC Gallery, Chicago, USA
2002 Homeland, Musrara School of Photography, Jerusalem, Israel
Eyes from Jerusalem, Museum of Rome at Trastevere, Rome, Italy
1999 Kick Off, The New Gallery, Jerusalem, Israel
1998 Search, Beit Ha’am Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel
Awards/Scholarship
2008 Chevening Scholarship for MA in Photographic Studies, University of Westminster, Westminster, UK
Caparo Award of Distinction for MA in Photographic Studies from University of Westminster, Westminster, UK
Independent Photographers Terry O'Neil Award, London, UK
Ellen Auerbach Award, Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Germany
2004 Preoccupying Zones: Young Artist of the Year Award 2004, A. M. Qattan Foundation, Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center, Ramallah, Palestine
2002 Hope and the Aesthetic Moment: Young Artist of the Year Award 2002, A. M. Qattan Foundation, Khalil Sakakini Cultural Center, Ramallah, Palestine
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