Creative Australia has awarded a $100,000 grant to artist Khaled Sabsabi, months after he was controversially dumped and then reinstated by the federal arts body as Australia\u2019s representative for the 2026 Venice Biennale.<\/p>\n
The grant \u2013 one of 16 made under Creative Australia\u2019s Visual Arts, Craft and Design Framework \u2013 will fund the creation of a new body of work for a solo exhibition opening in March 2027 at Adelaide\u2019s Samstag Museum of Art<\/a>, which will also include Sabsabi\u2019s Venice Biennale work.<\/p>\n In August, Sabsabi was also awarded a grant by Create NSW for a major new work in western Sydney.<\/p>\n The two commissions represent a silver lining in a tumultuous year for Sabsabi, a Lebanese-Australian artist from western Sydney. In February, he and curator Michael Dagostino were announced as Australia\u2019s representatives for the prestigious Venice Biennale<\/a>; less than a week later they were sacked<\/a>, after criticism by the Australian and the then shadow arts minister, Claire Chandler, over Sabsabi\u2019s use of imagery in previous artworks of the 9\/11 terrorist attacks and former Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah.<\/p>\n Sign up: AU Breaking News email<\/a><\/p>\n Creative Australia\u2019s unprecedented decision to revoke Australia\u2019s Venice Biennale commission, which it said at the time was an attempt to avoid \u201cdivisive debate\u201d, prompted resignations from within the organisation, including its head of visual arts, and triggered a massive backlash from the arts community. Among the high profile figures who publicly called for the reinstatement of Sabsabi and Dagostino were former Museum of Contemporary Art director Elizabeth Ann Macgregor<\/a> and artist Archie Moore<\/a>, winner of the Golden Lion at the 2024 Venice Biennale<\/a>.<\/p>\n A month after Creative Australia sacked Sabsabi, Monash University announced<\/a> that it had \u201cindefinitely postponed\u201d a group exhibition at Monash University Museum of Art (Muma) featuring his works, after \u201cconsultation with our communities\u201d.<\/p>\n At the time, Sabsabi\u2019s gallerist Josh Milani told Guardian Australia that Creative Australia\u2019s decision to revoke the artist\u2019s Venice contract had \u201cset in motion the dismantling of his career and livelihood\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cThey 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.\u201d<\/p>\n Monash University later reversed its decision, allowing the exhibition to open in May. In July Creative Australia reinstated Sabsabi and Dagostino<\/a> as Venice Biennale representatives, following an independent review that identified \u201cmissteps\u201d in its decision. At the time, Creative Australia chair Wesley Enoch apologised<\/a> to the artist and curator for the \u201churt and pain\u201d caused by the affair, acknowledging that Sabsabi\u2019s work had been \u201cmischaracterised\u201d.<\/p>\n After their reinstatement, the duo said the decision had renewed their confidence in Creative Australia and \u201cin the integrity of its selection process\u201d.<\/p>\n \u201cIt offers a sense of resolution and allows us to move forward with optimism and hope after a period of significant personal and collective hardship,\u201d they said in a joint statement.<\/p>\n \u201cWe acknowledge that this challenging journey has impacted not only us, but also our families, friends, the staff at Creative Australia, and many others across the broader artistic community here and abroad.<\/p>\n \u201cWe would not have reached this point without the unwavering support of the Australian and international creative community.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Creative Australia has awarded a $100,000 grant to artist Khaled Sabsabi, months after he was controversially dumped and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":198802,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-198801","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198801","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=198801"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/198801\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/198802"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=198801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=198801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=198801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}