‘I am a socially-engaged artist who’s worked in detention centres, schools, prisons, refugee and settlements camps, hospitals and youth centres, public and private galleries in the Australian and international context.

I began my creative life in the mid 80’s as a Hip-Hop performer and since then have artistically evolved to develop and produce numerous art presentations. I migrated with my family to Australia in 1977 due to civil war and in 2002 I travelled back to Lebanon and the surrounding region. This extended travel period became a significant moment in my creative career, forcing me to question, reflect and redefine my philosophical perspective and contemporary visual arts practice.

I am inspired by what may define us as a society and I strive to make artwork that reflects human collectiveness, while questioning ideological principles and complexities of identity politics. I make artwork that is in constant flux between the everyday and the metaphysical, in hope to find ways to enlighten our understanding of universal dynamics, which is far more complex and ultimately, more inconceivable than our physical selves’.

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Born in 1965, Tripoli, Lebanon and currently lives and works in Sydney, Australia.

Education, Master of Arts, Time Based Art major at COFA, University of New South Wales, Sydney, Australia.

Khaled Sabsabi’s process involves working across art mediums, geographical borders and cultures to create immersive and engaging art experiences. He see’s art as an effective tool to communicate with people, through a familiar language. Sabsabi makes work that questions; rationales and complexities of nationhood, identity and change. His practice speaks to audiences in ways that interconnect the interrelatedness and cycles of daily life.

Khaled was awarded an Australia Council for the Arts CCD fellowship in 2001, Helen Lempriere Travelling Art Scholarship 2010, 60th Blake Prize 2011, MCG Basil Sellers fellowship 2014, Fishers Ghost Prize 2014, Western Sydney ARTS NSW Fellowship 2015 and Sharjah Art Programme Prize 2016. He is represented by Milani Gallery, Brisbane and has 14 works in private, national and international collections. He has also participated in the 5th Marrakech Biennale, 18th Biennale of Sydney, 9th Shanghai Biennale, Sharjah Biennial 11, 1st Yinchuan Biennale, 3rd Kochi Muziris Biennale, Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art 2018 and the 21st Biennale of Sydney.