Mustafa Sabbagh
Born in Amman, 1961 and lives in Italy
Mustafa Sabbagh was born in Amman (Jordan). Italo-palestinian, raised between Europe and Middle East, his imprinting is cosmopolitan, while his attitude is nomadic. Former assistant of Richard Avedon, and teacher at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design in London, after a successful career as a fashion photographer recognized by the most prestigious magazines of the world, Sabbagh focuses his research towards contemporary art through the mediums of photography and video-art by a kind of aesthetic counter-canon in which punctum is the skin as diary of individual’s uniqueness. Harmony of imperfection, psychological investigation and anthropological enquiry through image construction are the stylistic features moved by Sabbagh from slicks, to the white cubes of the most important galleries and museums of the world – such as the Musée de l’Elysée, in Lausanne, internationally considered as a temple of photography. Often protagonist of interviews and documentaries inquiring into his visions, in 2013 Sky Arte HD, through the series Photographers, elected him as one of the 8 most significant artists of the contemporary italian scene. To date, Mustafa Sabbagh is even recognized as one of the 100 most influential photographers in the world, and one of the 40 most important nude portraitists – the only one from Italy, on an international basis. His artworks are included in numerous internationally accredited publications (including “Faces – the 70 most beautiful photography portraits of all time”, curated by Peter Weiermair), in many sold-out monographs (such as “About Skin”, edited by Damiani and acquired by the permanent book collection of Tate Gallery, in London) and in several permanent private and public collections, both in Italy and abroad – including the historical Farnesina Art Collection, the ArteFiera Foundation, and the acquisition of a whole new project by the permanent contemporary art collection of MAXXI – National Museum of XXI Century Arts (Rome). Upcoming to the presentation, the acquisition of an artwork commissioned by Casa Museo Boschi – De Stefano in partnership with the Foundation Ferrara Arte.
