Artist Lindy Lee quits Creative Australia board after ‘heartbreaking’ decision to dump Biennale artist

Lee calls unanimous decision a ‘violation’ of principle of valuing an artist’s voice

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The Creative Australia board meeting that led to Lebanese-Australian artist Khaled Sabsabi being dumped as the nation’s representative for the 2026 Venice Biennale was “fraught and heartbreaking”, the artist Lindy Lee has revealed.

Lee resigned her board position on Friday after it unanimously decided the night before to ditch the award-winning artist and his artistic partner, the curator Michael Dagostino, amid media and political criticism of some of Sabsabi’s historical artworks.

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