About

Minhal Al Halabi

Minhal Al Halabi (born 1971, Golan Heights) is a contemporary visual artist based in New Zealand, working across sculpture, painting, and public murals. Educated at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kyiv, Ukraine, he developed his artistic practice through diverse cultural experiences spanning the Golan Heights, South Africa, and New Zealand. His work explores themes of memory, dreams, nature, and human belonging, combining realism, surrealism, and abstraction within a distinctive visual language. Through paintings, sculptures, and public artworks, he creates narratives that blur the boundaries between reality and imagination, inviting reflection on the relationship between people, place, and memory.

Among his most notable public works in New Zealand are the Possum Bourne Statue, commemorating the legendary rally driver Possum Bourne; “Shrek” the Sheep, a sculpture celebrating the famous sheep that became a national icon; and the William Rees Memorial, honoring the founder of Queenstown.