Bahrain may not be home to the big international art brands we see in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, but for a small country, it certainly punches above its weight.
Enter Kaneka Subberwal and Art Select
Kaneka Subberwal, founder of Bahrain’s consultancy firm Art Select, has a two-fold mission: to bring Bahraini artists to the world, while also bringing the art world to the tiny island nation. Through a series of art weeks in cities around the world and Art Bahrain Across Borders (ArtBAB), an annual international art fair in Bahrain, Subberwal is shining a spotlight on the country’s art scene, hoping to attract the sort of international attention received by its larger neighbours in the Gulf. “When you come from a country the size of Bahrain, people are not anticipating the wealth of art we have,” says Subberwal, who is Indian, but has been living in the region for more than 10 years.
When we talk, she’s in the British capital for Bahrain Art Week in London, an exhibition displaying the work of 11 Bahraini artists, from young, emerging talents such as Aysha Almoayyed to established names on the Middle Eastern art scene such as Balqees Fakhro.
It was the third art week that Subberwal had organised in 2018, with different groups of Bahraini artists having shown in Paris in September and Singapore in October. Each exhibition is put together by the Art Select founder and local co-curator, who selects artists from among the applicants to an open call in Bahrain.
