Steve Sabella

Steve Sabella is an established artist and author. Born in Jerusalem, Palestine, and based in Berlin since 2010, Sabella's work is a powerful expression of his life and experiences. Widely recognized for his bold artwork, he is able to explore themes of identity and displacement, exile, the effects of colonization, liberation, and the human condition in a unique way, celebrating the resilience of the human spirit.

In 2023, as part of their 25th-anniversary celebration, Smart published “Always Unconventional," featuring Sabella and a commissioned essay on art as a great tool for liberation. Sabella has developed a distinct style of art that has earned him numerous awards and accolades. His thought-provoking artwork has been featured in galleries, museums, and publications worldwide.

Creating an impressive body of work over the past three decades, he is best known for his politically charged works while creating a captivating aesthetic experience. Sabella's early works served as an expression of his search for liberation using a variety of mediums, including photography, video art, and photo installation. Since the 2000s, Sabella has incorporated narrative elements into his works, as well as symbols and metaphors, with some representing the Palestinian struggle for independence, exploring the intricate relationship between the occupier and the occupied, between the Palestinian people and their history.

Recent Work

“The Great March of Return," photography collage, 2019
“Exit," photography, 2006
“Elsewhere," black and white photo-chrome images from nineteenth century historic Palestine, with a few images from Syria and Lebanon, 2020
“38 Days of Re-Collection," photo emulsion on paint fragments from Jerusalem Old City house walls, 2014
“The Sound of Jerusalem," photography collage of the Jerusalem skylines, 2020
“Everland," photo collage of Palestinian embroidery, 2020

Books

The Parachute Paradox
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“For Steve Sabella, the occupation attaches each Palestinian to an Israeli, as if in a tandem jump. The Israeli is always in control, placing the Palestinian under threat in a never-ending hostage situation. Sabella has two options: either to surrender or take a leap of faith. Sabella’s new book, The Parachute Paradox, is a memoir telling the life story of the artist born in Jerusalem’s Old City and raised under Israeli Occupation. After living through both intifadas, being kidnapped in Gaza, and learning to navigate different cultures, he feels in exile at home. Blurring fact and fiction, love and loss, the memoir traces one man’s arduous search for liberation from within, through a confrontation with the colonized imagination."
Palestine UNSETTLED is a photo journey to Palestine. Exhibited within its space are 130 images taken during the Second Intifada. The book is published without any text, date, or caption but with Arabic dedication to Mohammed Al-Asaad and Children of the Dew, a novel on that night in 1948 when Palestine became Israel.

Videos

In the Darkroom with Steve Sabella
Steve Sabella Interview
EDITORIAL TEAM

ONLINE FOUNDER
Tariq Hassan Gordon

COFOUNDERS & CURATORIAL ADVISORS  
Jamelie Hassan & Ron Benner

ADVISORY CIRCLE
Samer Abdelnour, Marnie Fleming, Wyn Geleynse, Fern Helfand, S F Ho, Lorraine Klaasen, Judith Rodger, Ruth Skinner, Mary Lou Smoke, and Lucas Stenning 

COORDINATING EDITORS
Tariq Hassan Gordon & Olivia Mossuto

CONTRIBUTING EDITORS
Blessy Augustine, Anahí González, Jared Hendricks-Polack, Jessica Irene Joyce, Ira Kazi, Shelley Kopp, Jenna Rose Sands, Mireya Seymour, Venus Tsao, Diana Tamblyn, and Michelle Wilson. 

VIRTUAL TOUR
Andreas Buchwaldt
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OUR STORY
Artists Jamelie Hassan and Ron Benner and jazz musician Eric Stach founded the Embassy Cultural House (1983-1990) located in the restaurant portion of the Embassy Hotel at 732 Dundas Street in East London. In 2020, at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Embassy Cultural House was re-envisioned as a virtual artist-run space and website. 
The Embassy Cultural House gratefully acknowledges the support of the Canada Council for the Arts, the Ontario Arts Council and the London Arts Council through the City of London's Community Arts Investment Program.
The Embassy Cultural House is thankful for the mentorship program established by Western University's Visual Arts department and the continued support of the students and Faculty of Arts & Humanities.

Our Partners

E M B A S S Y  C U L T U R A L  H O U S E . C A

The Embassy Cultural House (ECH) is located on the traditional lands of the Anishinaabek, Haudenosaunee, Lūnaapéewak, and Chonnonton peoples, at the forks of Deshkan Ziibi (Antler River), an area subject to the Dish with One Spoon Covenant Wampum and other treaties, colonized as London, Ontario. The ECH strives to create meaningful relationships between the Indigenous Peoples of Turtle Island and our contributors. The ECH honours the stewardship of the many Indigenous peoples who have resided on these lands since time immemorial.
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