Steve Sabella, born 1975 in Jerusalem, Palestine, is a Berlin-based artist who uses photography and photographic installation as his principal modes of expression. The artist’s first monograph Steve Sabella— Photography 1997-2014 has been published by Hatje Cantz in collaboration with the Akademie der Künste Berlin, with texts by Hubertus von Amelunxen and Kamal Boullata.

 

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 monograph.

 

Sabella’s solo exhibitions include Independence at Meem Gallery in Dubai (2014), Archaeology of the Future at the International Center for Photography Scavi Scaligeri in collaboration with Boxart Gallery in Verona (2014), Layers at Contemporary Art Platform in Kuwait (2014) and Fragments at Berloni Gallery in London (2014), Euphoria & Beyond at The Empty Quarter Gallery in Dubai (2011), and Steve Sabella: In Exile at Metroquadro Gallery in Rivoli (2010).

 

Group exhibitions include the 1st Biennial of Arab Photography at the The Arab World Institute (IMA) & the Maison Européenne de la Photographie in Paris (2015), Nel Mezzo del Mezzo at the Museo Riso in Palermo (2015), View from the Inside at the FotoFest Biennial in Houston (2014) and Keep Your Eye on the Wall at Les Rencontres d’Arles Photographie in Arles (2013). He was one of the commissioned artists for the touring exhibition Recreational Purpose at the Bahrain National Museum in Manama (2014) where he exhibited Sinopia, for Told, Untold, Retold of Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art in Doha (2009) where he presented the installation Settlement–– Six Israelis & One Palestinian; and for Neighbors in Dialogue––Istanbul Collection donated to the Ars Aevi Museum of Contemporary Art in Sarajevo (2007).

 

From the late 1990s through 2007 Sabella was based in Jerusalem and exhibited internationally as well as extensively throughout Palestine, including eleven solo shows.

 

His work is held in the collections of the British Museum, London; Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha; Contemporary Art Platform, Kuwait; Ars Aevi Museum of Contemporary Art, Sarajevo; Barjeel Art Foundation, Sharjah; Dr. Ramzi Dalloul Museum Collection, Beirut; Salsali Private Museum, Dubai; and in several private collections.


Source