Palestinian artist and photographer Steve Sabella, born in Jerusalem in 1975, has gained international acclaim with his project “Jerusalem in Exile: tangible memories”, exploring the multi-faceted ways Palestinians in exile visualise Jerusalem.

To illustrate complex emotions linked to both mental and physical exile, Sabella shows pieces of closed windows that offer views in and out. The windows provide prospects and hope, permitting the widest variety of angles of view, but still remain closed and keep the viewer outside, like an uninvolved observer. Sabella is one of the most widely exhibited artists in Palestine today, staging more than a dozen solo exhibitions and participating in international exhibitions in Europe, Canada and the United States. Among the most vital themes in Sabella’s work is the concept of exile, which he experienced even while growing up in Jerusalem. “As far as I remember I always felt out of place in my city of birth. Alienation was surrounding me,” Sabella has said. “...I was not ‘physically’ in exile. It was Jerusalem that was exiled and hence...all those who lived in it were in exile.”

Sabella has received a number of awards for his work.