You might first associate Khaled Sabsabi’s name with controversy; he was removed as the Venice Biennale’s Australian pavilion artist last year, then reinstated after public backlash and an independent review. But as with so many participants and works at the so-called Olympics of the art world, that is only part of the story.
This week, critic Aruna D’Souza sat down with Sabsabi for a conversation about the trauma of migration, the 132-foot-long piece that came to him in a dream, and the Sufi teachings that influenced his two works in Venice. One is on display in the late curator Koyo Kouoh’s In Minor Keys, a “triumph” of an exhibition that Editor-in-Chief Hakim Bishara calls “a solid hymn to the billions who carry melancholy and riotous joy in the same heart” in his review.
In other art that moved us, Jasmine Weber pays a visit to Betye Saar’s family of Black dolls at the New York Historical, while John Yau steps through the portals of Larissa Borteh’s canvases into worlds that are wholly her own. And the news cycle, as always, delivered headlines straight out of the Onion. Here’s a taste: The infamous Louvre heist is getting a film adaptation (which I will be in line to watch on opening night) and a New York gallerist thought it would be fun to use AI to colorize Ansel Adams’s iconic black-and-white photographs. What could go right?
If that isn’t enough to make you want to throw your phone off a cliff and go see some shows, a new study posits that interacting with art and cultural heritage — from taking a photo to wandering through a gallery — can literally add years to your life. May that spirit of creativity suffuse your weekend ahead. Happy reading, and, and if you haven’t already, please consider joining us as a Hyperallergic Member to support our fearless, critical art journalism.
—Lakshmi Rivera Amin, associate editor
Khaled Sabsabi’s Art of Collective Becoming
Last year, Lebanese-born, Sydney-based artist Khaled Sabsabi was chosen to represent Australia at the 2026 Venice Biennale. Within a week, the government intervened to override that decision, based on claims that by including a blurred image of a former Hezbollah leader in a video from 2007, Sabsabi was a supporter of terrorism and an antisemite. In response, Koyo Kouoh, the curator of the biennale’s main exhibition, In Minor Keys, stepped in, inviting Sabsabi to the show. Outcry within the arts community and an independent review led to Sabsabi’s reinstatement to Australia’s pavilion.
His two installations — “khalil” in In Minor Keys and “conference of one’s self” in the Australia pavilion — use painting, sound, and moving image to reflect on ideas of identity and collectivity, drawing upon his own life story and his interest in Tasawwuf (Sufi) teachings.
Aruna D’Souza sat down with Sabsabi to talk about his work in Venice and how it all came together.
Read the full interview
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