"In Minor Keys" Is the Biennale's Crown Jewel

In Minor Keys at the Venice Biennale presents work by 111 international artists and frames the moment as a calm centeredness that follows rage and retribution. The exhibition elevates unseen and unsung people, including the historically dispossessed and overlooked. Khaled Sabsabi, a Lebanese-born, Sydney-based artist, was selected to represent Australia at the 2026 Venice Biennale, but government pressure temporarily removed him from the Australian pavilion choice. Curator Koyo Kouoh intervened by inviting him to participate in the main exhibition, and Sabsabi was ultimately reinstated. An interview addresses Sabsabi’s major piece “khalil,” his pavilion vision, and “the multitude of beings within yourself.”

"In Minor Keys at the Venice Biennale is "a solid hymn to the billions who carry melancholy and riotous joy in the same heart," writes Hyperallergic 's Editor-in-Chief Hakim Bishara. In a review of the exhibition, Bishara touts the ways in which this exhibition elevates the unseen and the unsung. (And if you didn't like it, "it might be partly about you," he writes.)"

"Among the artists in that show is Khaled Sabsabi, whom the late curator Koyo Kouoh invited to participate after he was temporarily removed as the Australian pavilion's pick due to pressure from pro-Israel groups. (He was ultimately reinstated.) Today, Aruna d'Souza interviews the Lebanese-born, Sydney-based artist about "khalil," his major piece at the Arsenale; his pavilion vision, and "the multitude of beings within yourself.""

"The main exhibition of the 2026 Venice Biennale sets rage and retribution aside, relaxing the oppressed's clenched fist for a moment of calm, centeredness, and self-forgiveness. Boasting work by 111 international artists, the posthumous exhibition "In Minor Keys" is the crown jewel of a momentous biennale. It is a triumph of the historically dispossessed and overlooked, the proud, and beautiful "wretched of the earth." | Hakim Bishara"

"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 - to which Koyo Kouoh, the curator of the biennale's main exhibition, stepped in and invited Sabsabi to the show. Here, we speak to Sabsabi about his work. | Aruna D'Souza"

Read at Hyperallergic