Artist Gabrielle Goliath will appeal against a high court ruling upholding Arts Minister Gayton McKenzie's cancellation of her Venice Biennale participation, with an artwork called Elegy, which addresses femicide and genocide. Her legal team is contesting the judgment's implications for artists' rights.

The Arsenale, which would have hosted the South African pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale, will be empty this year, but lawyers for artist Gabrielle Goliath are challenging the high court judgment that stymied her attempts to have her participation reinstated following its apparent cancellation by Arts and Culture Minister Gayton McKenzie.

Goliath's attorney, Dario Milo, confirmed to Daily Maverick that his team are working on an application for leave to appeal against the judgment by Judge Mamoloko Kubushi, which was handed down on 18 February, with reasons for her ruling becoming public on 22 February - well after Biennale deadlines had passed, shutting the door on an urgent appeal and the possibility for Goliath to get in at the last minute.

Kubushi's judgment found that the dispute centred on an ordinary private agreement between two parties - the Department of Sport, Arts and Culture and Art Periodic, a nonprofit set up to run the selection of artworks and their exhibition in Venice - and did not, contractually, involve Goliath and her team, which consisted of curator Ingrid Masondo and studio manager James Macdonald.

An urgent application to stop McKenzie, a self-confirmed Zionist and leader of the Patriotic Alliance, from...