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Creative Australia has reinstated renowned Lebanese Australian artist Khaled Sabsabi and curator Michael Dagostino as Australia’s representatives at the 2026 Venice Biennale.
It follows an independent external review of the decision made by the nation’s arts funding body to revoke the artistic team’s appointment days after their selection was made public in February.
In a statement on Wednesday, Sabsabi and Dagostino said they had accepted an invitation to once again represent Australia at the international cultural exhibition.
“This decision has renewed our confidence in Creative Australia and in the integrity of its selection process,” they said.
“It provides a feeling of closure, enabling us to progress with positivity and hope following a time of considerable personal and shared challenges.”
The pair’s invitation was rescinded when some of Sabsabi’s early work, which referenced terrorism, was raised in federal parliament.
Creative Australia cancelled their invitation on the grounds their selection would cause a prolonged and divisive debate and that it posed an unacceptable risk to public support for Australia’s artistic community.
More than 4,000 people, including some of Australia’s most respected artists, called for Sabsabi and Dagostino to be reinstated.
Missteps, assumptions and missed opportunities — although no single predominant failure — were identified in the review.
“It was a complex series of events that created a unique set of circumstances which the board had to address,” Creative Australia acting chair Wesley Enoch said in a statement.
Arts Minister Tony Burke said he still had confidence in the Creative Australia board and reiterated his support for politicians to not be in charge of the agency’s decisions.
“These are arms-length decisions,” he told ABC TV.
“When they made the decision to appoint, I said I supported it, when they made the decision to terminate, I said I’d support that.”
Opposition spokesperson for arts Julian Leeser criticised the reinstatement.
“This has been a deeply flawed process from the beginning and has now led to a ridiculous outcome. It diminishes the power of Australian art as a tool of soft diplomacy,” he said.
“Tony Burke has serious questions to answer about the credibility of his agency, Creative Australia, in the wake of this saga.”
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said the board needed a “clean out” after causing an international embarrassment for Australia.
“People need to be held to account for this,” she said.
