Art duo dumped. Who will represent Australia in Venice?
What artist would be game to accept Creative Australia’s invitation to the Venice Biennale, amid the backlash over the dumping of its 2026 picks?
Australia has gone from winning Venice Biennale’s Golden Lion to the possibility it may not send anyone to the prestigious art event.
Artist Khaled Sabsabi and curator Michael Dagostino had been chosen to attend the 2026 event earlier in February, but federal funding body Creative Australia revoked their invitation on Thursday.
That decision followed questions in federal parliament about Sabsabi’s early artworks, which reference the 9/11 terrorist attacks and listed terror group Hezbollah.
Creative Australia said its board had decided unanimously to rescind the invitation.
But artist and board member Lindy Lee has quit following a board meeting on Thursday night she describes as “fraught”.
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“Nobody except those involved can ever know how fraught and heartbreaking that meeting was,” Lee said in a statement posted online on Sunday.
“I could not live with the level of violation I felt against one of my core values – that the artist’s voice must never be silenced,” she said.
Questions were asked in the Senate about Khaled Sabsabi’s art. Photo: supplied by Creative Australia
Creative Australia is now facing the real prospect of an artist boycott of the 2026 biennale.
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Another artist Garry Trinh who, like Sabsabi, works in western Sydney, said Sabsabi should not be replaced.
“No artist with any conscience should accept the show in place of Khaled Sabsabi,” he posted online.
He also named each of the 14 directors on the Creative Australia board and called for the board to be dissolved.
“The board has caused irrefutable damage to the legitimacy of the Australian Venice Biennale team,” he said.
The five other artistic teams shortlisted for Venice issued an open letter to Creative Australia on Friday, calling for the artists to be reinstated.
It’s an extraordinary turn of events for Australia’s representation at the Biennale, the most highly regarded occasion in contemporary art.
In 2024, artist Archie Moore and curator Ellie Buttrose won the Golden Lion at Venice for the artwork kith and kin, a first for Australia.