Khaled Sabsabi Show “Indefinitely Postponed” After Artist Dropped from Venice Biennale
150March 28, 2025
Monash University in Melbourne has “indefinitely postponed” a long-planned exhibition of the work ofKhaled Sabsabi, just one month after the Lebanese-born conceptual artist wasdismissedas Australia’s representative at the 2026 Venice Biennale. Titled “Stolon Press: Flat Earth,” the show had been in the works for a year and a half and was slated to open May 8 at theMonash University Museum of Artat the school’s campus in suburban Caulfield. Works by Sydney art and publishing collective Stolon Press and by writer and anthropologist Elisa Taber were to have been featured alongside those by Sabsabi.The Guardianreports that the university, not the museum, made the decision to put off the exhibition.
Sabsabi, who fled Tripoli as a child as Lebanon’s civil war raged and is now based in Sydney, is known for multimedia works themed around issues of conflict and identity, and concerned with shattering stereotypes of Muslim and Arab people. In early February, he had been announced as Australia’s representative at the Biennale, with Michael Dagostino, the director of the University of Sydney’s Chau Chak Wing Museum and a longtime supporter of the artist, named as the curator of the country’s pavilion. Just six days later, however, government arts council Creative Australia dropped the pair after politicians and the press denounced the artist’s incorporation of 9/11 imagery and that of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in earlier works.
“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,” Josh Milani, the artist’s gallerist, toldThe Guardian, 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 mischaracterization of him as a terrorist sympathizer 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.”
The university issued a statement confirming the postponement, saying, “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.”
No information regarding the reasoning behind the postponement was released, nor did the university reveal when or whether the show would be rescheduled.