Khaled Sabsabi show cancelled one month after sacking from Venice Biennale

The Guardian

26-03-2025

An upcoming exhibition featuring works by artist Khaled Sabsabi, who was controversially dumped as Australia's representative at the Venice Biennale last month, has been 'indefinitely postponed' by Monash University.
Sabsabi, a Lebanese-born artist based in western Sydney, made headlines in February when he and curator Michael Dagostino were announced as Australia's representatives at the 2026 Venice Biennale. But just six days later, they were both dropped by Australia's federal arts body Creative Australia, after days of media and political pressure over Sabsabi's use of imagery from the 9/11 terrorist attacks and former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was assassinated last year, in old works.
The upcoming exhibition, titled Stolon Press: Flat Earth, had been planned for 18 months and was due to open on 8 May at Monash University Museum of Art (Muma), in the Melbourne suburb of Caulfield East.
Guardian Australia understands the decision to call off the show was made by Monash University, not the staff at Muma.
Sabsabi's gallerist, Josh Milani, said the decision was a worrying sign that Creative Australia's decision was negatively impacting Sabsabi's career more broadly.
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'I have previously warned Creative Australia that their decision to repudiate Khaled Sabsabi's Venice Biennale commission had already set in motion the dismantling of his career and livelihood,' he said, adding: 'This cancellation is a direct result of Creative Australia's abandonment of him as an artist and a human being. They have allowed the mischaracterisation of him as a terrorist sympathiser to go unchecked.
'It should be clear, he is against terrorism and violence in all its forms and he is against racism in all its forms, including antisemitism.'
A spokesperson for Monash University told Guardian Australia in a statement: 'Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA) will postpone the Flat Earth exhibition at the Caulfield campus.
'Through consultation with our communities we have identified there is a need for the museum to deepen its collaboration and engagement on this exhibition. Postponing the event will allow this important work to be undertaken.'
Monash did not respond to queries from Guardian Australia about why the exhibition was postponed, whether it would be rescheduled or whether the decision was taken in response to Creative Australia's sacking of Sabsabi.
Alongside Sabsabi, the exhibition was to include works by Sydney art collective Stolon Press – a longtime collaborator with Sabsabi – and Elisa Taber, a writer and anthropologist.
Muma's website says Sabsabi's works were 'large, coffee-infused calligraphic paintings rooted in tasawwuf (Sufism), alongside abstracted silhouette works that employ numerology and repetition to explore spirituality and our shared human condition'.
Milani said Creative Australia's decision has 'had a devastating impact on [Sabsabi's] career and wellbeing' and that he would continue to fight to be reinstated at the 2026 Venice Biennale.
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Guardian Australia understands Creative Australia has paid out 90% of the $100,000 artist fee and $50,000 curator fee owed to the pair under the contract they signed before being abruptly terminated.
Milani said he hoped Creative Australia's ongoing review into the process of selection of Sabsabi and Dagostino would result in them being reinstated.
'The decision by Creative Australia to repudiate his Venice Biennale contract was based on views which have now been almost unanimously disavowed by countless experts in the sector,' Milani said. 'When a bad, rushed decision based on incorrect information leads to a gross injustice, the courageous and ethical thing to do is to reverse the decision.
'It would be a win-win-win for everyone – for Khaled, for Creative Australia, for the art sector,' he said.
Guardian Australia has contacted Creative Australia and Muma for comment.
Amid widespread outrage in the Australian art world over the decision, it is unlikely another artist and curator will agree to replace Sabsabi and Dagostino – which may mean the Australian pavilion remains empty at the 2026 biennale.
But Milani said Sabsabi will continue to make the planned biennale work, regardless of whether he is reinstated. 'We are making plans in that regard for it to be seen by a global audience,' he said.