Khaled Sabsabi’s process involves working across art mediums, geographical borders and cultures to create immersive and engaging art experiences.
Khaled Sabsabi















Born in 1965, Tripoli, Lebanon, Khaled Sabsabi migrated to Western Sydney in 1977 during the Lebanese Civil War, where he continues to live and work.
Khaled Sabsabi is a socially-engaged artist who has worked in detention centres, prisons, schools, refugee and settlement camps, hospitals and youth centres, as well as in public and private galleries in both Australia and internationally. Focusing on the constant flux between the everyday and the metaphysical, Sabsabi hopes to enlighten our understanding of universal dynamics and to question the ideological principles and complexities of identity politics. Juxtaposing themes of the political and the divine, contested histories and the eternal, his art is guided by his practice as a tasawwuf (Sufi).
Believing firmly in the power of art as an effective and influential tool to communicate with people, Khaled’s practice spans mediums, methods, geological borders, communities and cultures to create experiences that are engaging and immersive.
Khaled begun his creative practice in the hip hop scene of Western Sydney in the late 80’s, and has continued a community based arts practice for over 35 years, exhibiting internationally in the Sharjah Biennale (2013), the Shanghai Biennale (2012), the Marrakesh Biennale (2014), the Kochi Muzuris Biennale (2016), the Sydney Biennale (2012 and 2018), the Yinchuan Biennale (2016), and holding major solo exhibitions at Australian institutions, including at PICA (2018) AGNSW (2020) and Campbelltown Arts Centre (2022). In 2024 he was the recipient of the Mordant Family Creative Australia Affiliated Fellowship at the American Academy in Rome.
KHALED SABSABI
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS:
2024 KHALED SABSABI, The Lock-Up, Newcastle, Australia.
2024 KNOWING BEYOND, Fairfield Museum and Art Gallery, Fairfield, Australia.
2023 UNSEEN, Mosman Art Gallery, Sydney, Australia.
2022 RECENT WORKS, Milani Gallery, Brisbane, Australia.
2022 A HOPE, Campbelltown Arts Centre and Arts NSW, Australia.
2020 A PROMISE, Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney, Australia.
2018 A SELF PORTRAIT, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Perth, Australia.
2017 MAJORITY MINORITY, Fairfield Museum and Art Gallery, Fairfield, Australia.
2016 WE KILL YOU, Milani Gallery, Brisbane, Australia.
2014 70,000 VEILS, Milani Gallery, Brisbane, Australia.
2014 99, Peacock Gallery, Auburn, Australia.
2014 SYRIA, Mosman Art Gallery, Sydney, Australia.
2014 MUSH, Islamic Museum of Australia, Melbourne, Australia.
2012 KHALED SABSABI: RECENT WORKS, Milani Gallery, Brisbane, Australia.
2012 MUSH, Art Space Sydney, Woolloomooloo, Australia.
2009 INTEGRATION, ASSIMILATION AND A FAIR GO FOR ALL, Gallery 4A, Australia.
2007 RESORT, Te Tuhi Centre for the Arts, New Zealand.
2007 ON`N’ ON, Campbelltown Arts Centre and Arts NSW, Australia.
2006 RESORT, Mori Gallery, Sydney, Australia.
2005 ALI OR عLI, Casula Powerhouse and Campbelltown Arts Centre, Australia.
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS:
2024 THE VIEWS FROM HERE (PART 2), Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Australia.
2024 INNER SANCTUM, 18th Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia AGSA,
Adelaide, Australia.
2023 VOICE AGAINST REASON, at Museum MACAN, Jakarta, Indonesia.
2022 THE ARENA, Orange Regional Gallery, Orange, Australia.
2022 THE 67TH BLAKE PRIZE, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Australia.
2022 DESTINY DISRUPTED, Granville Centre Art Gallery, Australia.
2022 THIS LANGUAGE THAT IS EVERY STONE, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia.
2021 HABITAT: WAYS OF LIVING, Canberra Museum and Gallery, Australia.
2020 OLDER THAN LAGUAGE, Salamanca Arts Centre, Hobart, Australia.
2020 DO IT (AUSTRALIA), Kaldor Public Art Project, Serpentine Galleries, London and Independent
Curators International.
2019 AUSTRALIA - ANTIPODEAN STORIES, Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea, Milan Italy.
2019 KALDOR PROJECT 34 ABSORPTION BY ASAD RAZA, Carriageworks, Sydney, Australia.
2018 SUPERPOSITION: EQUILIBRIUM & ENGAGEMENT, 21st Biennale of Sydney, Cockatoo Island,
Australia.
2018 SHARJAH ART FOUNDATION 10TH ANNIVERSARY EXHIBITION, Sharjah, UAE.
2018 DARK HORIZONS, Abdul Abdullah, Abdul-Rahman Abdullah and Khaled Sabsabi, Pātaka Art +
Museum, Porirua City, Aotearoa / New Zealand.
2018 ENOUGH خلص KHALAS: CONTEMPORARY AUSTRALIAN MUSLIM ARTISTS, UNSW Galleries,
Sydney, Australia.
2018 WAGT AL-TAGHEER: TIME OF CHANGE, ACE Open, Adelaide, Australia.
2018 DIVIDED WORLDS, Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, Adelaide, Australia.
2017 THE NATIONAL, Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney, Australia.
2017 Australasian Painters 2007 – 2017 Orange Regional Gallery (ORG) Orange, Australia.
2017 WE ARE ALL AFFECTED, Peacock Gallery, Auburn, Australia.
2017 UNDER THE SUN: REIMAGINING MAX DUPAIN’S SUNBAKER, Australian Centre for
Photography, NSW State Library, Sydney, Australia.2017 ANOTHER DAY IN PARADISE, Sydney Festival, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Australia.
2016 FORMING IN THE PUPIL OF AN EYE, 3rd Kochi Muziris Biennale, Kerala, India.
2016 FOR AN IMAGE, FASTER THAN LIGHT, 1st Yinchuan Biennale, MOCA, China.
2016 IT’S OUR THING, Blacktown Arts Centre, Australia.
2016 BEACHHEAD'S PEACE OF MIND, Artspace, Auckland, New Zealand.
2016 DO IT, Sharjah Art Foundation Art Spaces, Sharjah, UAE.
2015 9/11, Moana, Perth, Australia.
2015 24 FRAMES PER SECOND, Carriageworks, Sydney, Australia.
2015 HOME HERE NOW, Walker Street Gallery & Arts Centre, Dandenong, Australia.
2015 DISCO DOME, ICE exhibition, Sydney Festival, Parramatta, Australia.
2014 EXPERIMENTA – RECHARGE, 6th international biennial of media Art, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne,
Australia.
2014 GIVING VOICE, Salamanca Arts Centre, Hobart, Australia.
2014 BASIL SELLERS ART PRIZE 4, Ian Potter Museum of Art, Melbourne and The Anne & Gordon
Samstag Museum of Art, Adelaide, SA, Australia.
2014 SUBJECT TO RUIN, Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Australia.
2014 CONFLICT CONTEMPORARY RESPONSES TO WAR, The University of Queensland Art
Museum, Australia.
2014 LET THE LIGHT IN, Redlands Konica Minolta Art Prize, Sydney, Australia.
2014 WHERE ARE WE NOW, 5th Marrakech Biennale, Morocco.
2014 THE AUSTRALIAN PLATFORM, Art Stage Singapore.
2013 TOWARDS A NEW CULTURAL CARTOGRAPHY, Sharjah Biennial 11, UAE.
2012 TABOO, Museum of Contemporary Art, Australia.
2012 SHIFTING SANDS, Contemporary Art Centre of South (CACSA), Australia.
2012 REACTIVATION, 9th Shanghai Biennale, Gallery 4A Sydney Pavilion, China.
2012 ALL OUR RELATIONS, 18th Biennale of Sydney, Museum of Contemporary Art and Cockatoo
Island, Australia.
2012 EXCAVATION: The Armory Gallery, Sydney Olympic Park, Australia.
2012 VOLUME ONE: MCA COLLECTION, Museum of Contemporary Art, Australia.
2012 EDGE OF ELSEWHERE 3, Sydney Festival, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Gallery 4A and University
of Sydney, Australia.
2011 GENERATIONS, Wollongong City Gallery, Wollongong, Australia.
2011 BLAKE ART PRIZE; National Art School, Sydney Australia.
2011 Medium Cool; Kudos Gallery, Sydney Australia.
2011 EDGE OF ELSEWHERE 2, Sydney Festival, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Gallery 4A and University
of Sydney, Australia.
2010 HELEN LEMPRIERE SCHOLARSHIP, Artspace Sydney, Australia.
2010 PRESENT TENSE: AN IMAGINED GRAMMAR OF PORTRAITURE IN THE DIGITAL AGE, National
Portrait Gallery, Canberra, ACT, Australia.
2010 EDGE OF ELSEWHERE 1, Sydney Festival, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Gallery 4A and University
of Sydney, Australia.
2009 MAKING IT NEW: FOCUS ON CONTEMPORARY AUSTRALIAN ARTS, Museum of Contemporary
Art, Sydney, Australia.
2009 OUT OF PLACE, LEBANESE ARTISTS IN THE DIASPORA, Kunstverein Tiergarten, Berlin.
2008 KHALED SABSABI & MAZEN KERBAJ, Contemporary Art Centre of South Australia.
2008 TALES OF COLOUR from the personal to the political, Blacktown Arts centre.
2007 SOUNDLAB DIGITAL ART FESTIVAL Rosario/Argentina 2007 & Valencia/Spain 2008.
2007 ASIA - EUROPE MEDIATIONS, Museum of Art, Poznan, Poland.
2007 SOFT POWER: ASIAN ATTITUDE, Contemporary art results from post-industrial society, MOCA,
Shanghai, China.
2007 THE RESILIENT LANDSCAPE, Ivan Dougherty Gallery, Sydney Australia.
2007 OVERSITE BEYOND EXCHANGE, BROADER THEN CITIES, Casula Powerhouse, Australia.
2006 YEAR IN ART 2006, annual exhibition, National trust of Australia, S.H. Ervin Gallery,Sydney,
Australia.
2006 MONOGRAPHIC SAMPLE OF ART AVERAGE, Calda University, UNESCO, Foundation Institute of
Investigations of Image, Ministry of Culture Colombia.2006 D/LUX MEDIA ARTS FESTIVAL, Sydney Opera House, Australia.
2006 INTERDIGITATE, the Moving Image Centre, Auckland, New Zealand.
2006 ASIA-PACIFIC DOCUMENTARY FESTIVAL, gallery 4 A, Sydney, Australia.
2006 ://SELFPORTRAIT - A TOURING SHOW FOR BETHLEHEM - A SHOW FOR PEACE, Casoria
Contemporary Art Museum Naples, Italy.
2005 MEMORY & IDENTITY AND VIOLENCE, SoundLab Channel, EDITION III, Germany and the 2nd
Digital Art Festival Rosario/Argentina.
2005 ART IN THE AIR, Faucet Media Arts Centre & Struts Gallery, Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada.
2005 AV OUT, exhibition, Blacktown Arts Centre, Sydney, Australia.
2005 HATCHED NATIONAL EXHIBITION, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Australia.
2004 ELECTROFRINGE THE DEVIL IN DETAIL, Canberra Contemporary Art Space, Australia.
2000 EAST OF SOMEWHERE, visual arts exhibition, Casula Powerhouse, Australia.
1999 LIVING HERE NOW ART & POLITICS, Y2K, Australian Perspecta, Sydney, Australia.
1998 ARAB MADE EXHIBITION, Casula Powerhouse, Australia.
COLLECTIONS:
Queensland Art Gallery (QAG) and Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA), Brisbane QLD
Campbelltown Arts Centre, Campbelltown NSW
Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney NSW
Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth WA
Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney NSW
Casula Powerhouse Arts Centre, Liverpool NSW
Campbelltown Arts Centre, Campbelltown NSW
Australian War Memorial - AWM, Canberra ACT
Mosman Art Gallery, Mosman NSW
Civic collection City of Sydney, NSW
Birpai Local Aboriginal Land Council
Casoria International Contemporary Art Museum, Casoria
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:
• Chrisoula Lionis, ‘Insurgence of the ‘Politizen’; Broadsheet: contemporary visual art + culture; 2007.
• Naomi Gall, ‘ON' n 'ON’ Artlink, Fuel for Thought: oil, energy, conflict and art, Issue 28:1 March
2008.
• David McNeil, ‘Khaled Sabsabi, or how to tell when you’re listening to a fool’, Broadsheet:
contemporary visual art + culture, March 2008.
• P. Tabar and J. Skulte-Ouasis, Politics, Culture and the Lebanese Diaspora, Cambridge Scholars
Publishing 2010.
• S. Fernandes, ‘Close to the Edge: In Search of the Global Hip Hop Generation’, Verso 2011.
• Farid Farid, ‘Unrequited Language’ Artlink, Diaspora, Issue 31:1 March 2011.
• Pedro de Almeida, ‘Everything and nothing’, BROADSHEET, vol. 42.2, June 2013.
• Andrew Yip, ‘Peacefender’, Artlink, Art & War: Badlands, Issue 35:1 March 2015.
• Kon Gouriotis, ‘Khaled Sabsabi’ Artist Profile, Issue-33 by Lucy Stranger February 2016.
• Kon Gouriotis, ‘Khaled Sabsabi Wins International Shajah Prize’, Artist Profile issue 33, March 2016.
• Chari Larsson, ‘Multitude, Solitude: Khaled Sabsabi’s ‘Crowds’, Di’van, December 2017.
• Genevieve O'Callaghan, The National 2017: New Australian art, Sydney: Art Gallery of New South
Wales; Museum of Contemporary Art; Carriageworks; 2017.
• Julie Ewington, 'The state of our art', The Monthly, May 2017.
• Kon Gouriotis, Australasian Painters, 2007-2017, Orange Regional Gallery and Artist Profile, June
2017.
• Green, Erica, Divided worlds: 2018 Adelaide Biennial of Australian art, 2018.
• John Mateer ‘Khaled Sabsabi: A Self Portrait’, Art Link, August 2018.
• Kon Gouriotis, ‘Khaled Sabsabi ‘, Artist Profile, December 2020.
• Stephanie Berlangieri, ‘We Came Whirling: Khaled Sabsabi’s A Hope’, Artist Profile, Issue 57, 2021.
• Khaled Sabsabi Book, Publisher: Bandicoot Books - ISBN: 9780645131918, March 2022.
• Farid Farid, ‘Khaled Sabsabi’, Artist Profile issue 65, March 2024.
AWARDS:
• Australia Council for the Arts Community Cultural Development Fellowship 2001.
• The Helen Lempriere Travelling Art Scholarship in 2010.
• The 60th annual Blake Prize in 2011.
• The 52nd Fishers Ghost Prize in 2014.
• The National Sports Museum Basil Sellers Creative Arts Fellowship 2014.
• ARTS NSW Western Sydney Arts Fellowship 2015.
• Sharjah Art Foundation Production Programme 2016.
• International Council of Museums' and Heritage Awards, Video Art Prize 2016.
• University of NSW Annual Alumni Award ‘Art and Culture’ 2019.
• The Copyright Agency Cultural Fund Visual Arts Fellowship 2020.
• Creative Australia ‘Annual Visual Arts Award’ 2023.
• Mosman Art Prize The Margaret Olley Commendation Award 2024.
• Mordant Family and Creative Australia American Academy Rome Affiliated Fellowship 2024.
Exhibitions
Off-site Exhibitions
- Sep 14 – Nov 24, 2024Khaled Sabsabi‘Khaled Sabsabi at The Lock-Up’Newcastle, New South Wales
- Jun 22 – Oct 19, 2024Khaled Sabsabi‘Khaled Sabsabi: Knowing Beyond’Fairfield City Museum & Gallery
- Mar 1 – Jun 2, 2024James Barth, Khaled Sabsabi‘18th Adelaide Biennale of Australian Art: Inner Sanctum’Art Gallery of South Australia