Artists have accused the federal government’s industry funding body of caving in to political and media pressure for abruptly dumping the team it had picked to represent Australia at the Venice Biennale to avoid a debate about past works related to terrorism as a subject.

Khaled Sabsabi, a Lebanese-born Muslim artist from western Sydney, and curator Michael Dagostino were unanimously dropped by Creative Australia’s board as pick for the biennale, a week after being announced as the country’s representatives at the prestigious world art event.