Office wall art in Bahrain, from the bank lobby to the boardroom

Bahrain's public buildings set the example: the airport terminal hangs paintings by 15 Bahraini artists alongside 10 sculptures by Bahraini sculptors. Companies do it too: one young Bahraini artist has produced collaborations for Starbucks, GA Aviation and Montblanc.

To find a painter, the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities publishes an A–Z directory of artists, and the Art Station in Muharraq, a converted late-1970s mall, gives artists subsidised studios. Commission the statement piece there. Then send us the palette, and we paint the side walls, the meeting rooms and the corridors to match, each sized to its wall, so the local work sits at the centre of a scheme rather than alone in a plain office. Hotels plan the same way: see Bahrain hotels and restaurants.

Bahrain's institutions think in architectural sizes: the airport's glass installations cover 125 m² over its central hub, and its stained-glass 'Concordia' measures 34 by 17 metres. Most offices sit in towers, from the twin Harbour Towers of Bahrain Financial Harbour to Seef and Manama's business district, but the lesson holds: a lobby is taller and deeper than a living room, and a canvas that looks generous in a shop reads small from the entrance. Start from these:

Every iHomeArt canvas is painted to your wall's dimensions. More in the Bahrain size guide and lobby art.

A boardroom painting is seen by people sitting down, from the far end of a long table, and by everyone on screen. Hang it on the wall the chair faces or behind the head of the table, a little lower than in a corridor, and keep the side walls quiet. Matte, textured surfaces suit these rooms better than glossy ones, which catch the screens and the ceiling lights.

The executive floor deserves its own pieces: the airport commissioned separate works from Bahraini artists for its Pearl Lounge rather than extend the concourse programme into it. Bahrain's painters show the calmer register. Balqees Fakhro paints large abstract canvases in muted colours and textures inspired by weathered walls, and Shaikh Rashid bin Khalifa Al Khalifa moved from desert and sea landscapes to geometric abstraction and colour field. For a bank, a law firm or a ministry, that is usually the right temperature: deep blue, sand, grey and a little gold, with texture rather than loud colour. Browse boardroom art.

Bahrain has a public example. In October 2024 the Bahrain Authority for Culture and Antiquities hung 14 Bahraini painters, landscapes and abstract compositions, on panels along the concourses of Exhibition World Bahrain: one register, read in sequence. The airport terminal goes further, with two complete galleries in arrivals and departures.

In an office, choose one size that repeats and one palette for each floor or department, and let the composition change from canvas to canvas. On open-plan floors, where desks, glass and screens break up the walls, a run of mid-sized works carries better than one large piece. Ten or more reach volume pricing; each canvas is labelled for its position, with a packing list, and we keep the codes on file so a later floor or branch can match. See corridor art and art for corporate headquarters.

Bahrain's public displays lean to landscape and abstraction, and its artists, in the words of the Art Station's director, show work that 'has to do with our memory, our past and our identity'. Calligraphy is often described as one of the popular forms of art in Bahrain; across the region, verses, poetry and proverbs hang in offices and reception rooms. For a verse, a motto or your company's name in script, start from a calligrapher's artwork, used with their permission, have a native reader check the stage photographs, and give a verse a wall where it is treated with respect.

Bahrain's painting tradition includes people: Abbas Almosawi's souk and seafront scenes have been shown in banks and hotels. Still, on walls that visitors of every background pass, most companies keep to landscape, sea, abstraction, geometry or botanicals, and leave people and animals for a private office whose occupant wants them. Rule out anything explicit from the start. More in Bahrain taste and styles.

Bahrain's fit-out firms work turnkey: one long-established contractor lists space planning, construction drawings, project management and furniture procurement, another a 'one stop shop' for commercial interiors across Bahrain and the GCC. Art is rarely on those lists, so it gets left until the week before handover, when the walls are done and the budget spent. Put it in the schedule with the furniture, wall by wall.

The designer, the contractor or your office manager sends us photographs or elevations of each wall with its width, the palette and the finish. We suggest sizes and designs from some 1,300 catalogue works, or design pieces for the project, and quote usually within one business day. Order one canvas first if the board wants to see it; photographs of each stage go straight to whoever approves, and the next stage starts only after a yes. Then work back from the handover or launch date, as Bank ABC's commission was built in five weeks for its launch: about 10 days to paint, then 5–7 days by express. The wider picture is in our Bahrain wall art guide.

Each canvas can travel stretched and ready to hang, framed, or rolled; a rolled canvas, the lightest and most economical way to send a large painting, arrives without stretcher bars, and any local framer can stretch it for you.

A waiting room is looked at longer than almost any other wall, often by people who are anxious, so choose pictures that settle the eye: still water, open landscape, flowers, soft colour. Hang them for seated eyes, a little lower than in a corridor, and clear of door swings and trolleys. A bank hall or a ministry service counter follows the same rule, with one larger piece to give the room a focus.

Clinics clean every surface often, so tell the cleaning team that a canvas needs only a dry cloth, never a spray. Order the consulting rooms as one set in one palette, so the corridor feels planned rather than furnished piece by piece. See calming art and art for hospitals and clinics.