An exhibition at Monash University Museum of Art (MUMA) in Melbourne featuring Khaled Sabsabi has been indefinitely postponed.
The cancellation of the show follows the controversial withdrawal on 7 February of Sabsabi and curator Michael Dagostino as Australia’s representatives at the Venice Biennale in 2026, just five days after his appointment was first announced.
The decision followed pressure from critics and a discussion in the Australian Senate when Claire Chandler questioned Sabsabi’s selection over his depiction of a former leader of the Lebanese paramilitary and political organisation Hezbollahah in a 2007 work.
Titled Stolon Press: Flat Earth, the MUMA show had been eighteen months in the making and was due to open on 8 May. It was to feature the work of Sabsabi alongside Sydney-based collective Stolon Press (a longtime collaborator of Sabsabi) and writer and anthropologist Elisa Taber. It is the first time in the gallery’s fifty-year history that an exhibition has been pulled.
‘From the moment he was sacked by Creative Australia for the Venice Biennale commission, the curators at MUMA started receiving pressure from their superiors,’ Sabsabi’s gallerist Josh Milani stated. ‘They have allowed the mischaracterisation of him as a terrorist sympathiser to go unchecked.’
A Monash University spokesperson said in a written statement: ‘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.’
