Steve Sabella

Steve Sabella is a Berlin-based artist and author whose work investigates the image, exile, and the decolonization of thought. His memoir, The Parachute Paradox, won the Eric Hoffer and Nautilus Book Awards for Best Memoir and has been hailed as one of the most original narratives written from a Palestinian perspective.

Sabella’s art and writing expose how systems of power infiltrate not only borders, but perception itself. His work moves between autobiography, art, and philosophical inquiry—charting the psychological architecture of occupation and the journey to reclaim mental sovereignty.

He holds two Master's degrees from the University of Westminster and Sotheby’s Institute of Art, and received the Ellen Auerbach Prize from the Akademie der Künste in Berlin, leading to the monograph Steve Sabella: Photography 1997–2014 (Hatje Cantz). His art is held in major public collections including the British Museum, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art (Doha), and the Arab World Institute (Paris).

Sabella’s latest book, The Artist’s Curse, offers 365 distilled reflections on the creative condition—naming the doubts, contradictions, and pressures artists face daily. It doesn’t offer answers. It offers confrontation, clarity, and the permission to persist.

He is also the creator of Palestine—UNSETTLED, an award-winning photographic series supported by the Arab Fund for Arts and Culture (AFAC). His solo exhibitions span the globe, including a major retrospective Archaeology of the Future at the International Center of Photography, Verona.

Through his work, Sabella continues to dismantle inherited narratives—and to open space for imaginative and intellectual freedom.