New Delhi, Feb. 9 -- Across the world, it is a time of charged geopolitics, marked by widespread crackdowns on civil liberties and freedom of expression. Can the art world be unaffected by all the conflict? One can sense the impact of polarisation in the exclusions at certain events. For instance, at the ongoing Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Tom Vattakuzhy's exhibition was closed temporarily last year after religious groups protested against Supper at a Nunnery, an interpretation of The Last Supper, outraged by the artist's treatment of a Biblical theme. For the 2026 Venice Biennale, South Africa's minister of sport, arts and culture blocked artist Gabrielle Goliath's entry Elegy, which depicts gender-based violence and references Gaza.

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