How interior murals are redefining spaces in Bangladesh
Today, murals are widely regarded as powerful tools for storytelling, employee engagement, client attraction, and spatial identity, making spaces more welcoming and visually engaging
You may walk into a restaurant, café, bookshop, university cafeteria, apparel outlet, or even a lavish corporate office and find your gaze drawn to walls alive with large illustrations, paintings, or installations spreading across entire surfaces.
In other spaces, you might encounter timeless wall installations crafted from earthen materials such as terracotta, stone, ceramic, or wood, perhaps in the drawing room of a home whose owner has a deep fascination with art and a keen aesthetic sensibility.
Today, murals are widely regarded as powerful tools for storytelling, employee engagement, client attraction, and creating a sense of spatial identity, making spaces more welcoming and visually engaging.
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Kazi Istela Imam, a Dhaka-based mural artist, said, "Most people are looking for ways to brighten up a space, attract and engage visitors, and create a visually appealing backdrop for photographs, while also reflecting their brand identity."
In contemporary architecture, mural art, expressed through both modern styles and traditional forms, has gained remarkable popularity in Bangladesh. From corporate offices, banks, and development organisations to apparel stores, restaurants, cafés, universities, bookshops, schools, cultural institutions, and even private homes, interior walls are increasingly being used as visual canvases. Through this age-old art form, brands, institutions, and individuals communicate narratives, values, and personal tastes.
Artist Reesham Shahub Tirtho, who has been working in this field since 2018, said, "This form of art, often referred to as environmental art, began gaining popularity in Bangladesh after the 2010s." He added that in Western architectural practice, interior mural art began to appear more prominently in the late 1990s, gaining mainstream recognition only in the 2010s.
From ancient caves to modern interiors
Mural art, considered one of the oldest visual expressions of human civilisation, predates written language itself. The word mural originates from the Latin murus, meaning wall.
The earliest known murals date back more than 30,000 years and can be found in prehistoric cave sites such as Lascaux in France and Altamira in Spain. Created using natural pigments, these paintings depicted animals, hunting scenes, and ritual symbols, suggesting that murals originally served spiritual, narrative, and communal purposes rather than mere decoration.
Greek and Roman civilisations later brought murals into domestic interiors. Roman frescoes preserved in Pompeii and Herculaneum introduced architectural illusion, perspective, and scenes from everyday life, expanding the role of murals within living spaces.
In South Asia, mural traditions developed independently and flourished over centuries. The murals of the Ajanta and Ellora caves in India stand among the finest surviving examples, illustrating Buddhist narratives with exceptional emotional depth and technical mastery.
Today, mural art exists at the intersection of art, design, architecture, and branding. It encompasses street art, graffiti, decorative interior murals, and site-specific installations.
According to John Berger, an English art critic, mural art's association with interior spaces is not a recent development; rather, it is a return to its original relationship with architecture. From prehistoric caves to contemporary office interiors, murals have always been shaped by how humans inhabit space.
As architecture evolved, murals naturally moved into temples, palaces, and homes, becoming integral to interior environments rather than standalone artworks.
In Bangladesh, this transition has also been shaped by a renewed interest in indigenous visual traditions — such as terracotta work, alpana, folk motifs, and calligraphic forms — alongside Western-influenced styles. As a result, contemporary interior murals increasingly bridge tradition and modernity, making them both culturally resonant and visually relevant within today's architectural spaces.
Making of murals
In terms of style, form, figurative approach, composition, colours, media, and techniques, mural artists approach interior walls in distinctly different ways. Each project reflects not only an artist's individual style and artistic identity, but also the nature of the space it inhabits.
Artists working in Bangladesh say that most clients currently favour narrative and figurative minimalist styles. These often incorporate geometric shapes, simplified characters, and doodle-like elements. At the same time, traditional visual forms, such as terracotta patterns, alpana, folk motifs, and calligraphic expressions, remain widely popular, particularly when reinterpreted within contemporary design frameworks.
"But the entire process depends primarily on the client's brand identity, suggested theme, available budget, and spatial context of the interior," said Istela.
Artist Tirtho, however, is known for a highly recognisable yet restrained approach. Characterised by minimalist compositions and large-scale figurative illustrations, his murals can bring a wall to life. As a result, his work is in high demand across corporate offices, banks, restaurants, museums, and universities, and has appeared in more than a hundred locations.
"I try to keep my designs as simple as possible and execute each project in a way that feels unique, so people cannot immediately identify it as my work," said Tirtho.
Sumita Halder, on the other hand, has developed a signature style rooted in traditional forms. Incorporating alpana, mandala, and kalka motifs into her murals, she has built a distinctive visual language over time.
"I am particularly drawn to the Santiniketan style of alpana. Gradually, I developed my own approach by blending alpana with mandala and kalka forms," said Sumita, a former fine arts student who has been working in mural art since 2015.
Istela follows yet another path. Her murals often combine typography with mixed media, allowing text, colour, and material to interact within a single composition.
Emerging artists such as Mong Shonie, who has been involved in mural projects for the past three years in collaboration with senior artists like Istela, are also seeking to establish their own stylistic identities in single projects.
Colour selection plays a crucial role in interior murals. While artists have personal preferences and techniques, palettes are ultimately shaped by brand colours, thematic direction, spatial lighting, and the overall ambiance of the interior.
"Choosing colour depends on several factors, including the brand's signature palette," said Tirtho. "You also have to consider the interior environment, the furniture, and the lighting environment."
Istela is known for her use of vibrant, playful neon and pop colours, which have become a defining feature of her work. In contrast, Mong Shonie prefers earthy tones, drawing from his fine arts background to create compositions with a deeper and more mature visual mood.
Interior murals can be executed using a wide range of media, including paint, digital prints, ceramics, metal, and wood.
"In the Brac Bank Head Office project, I worked with three different media," he said. "One wall featured a large, simplified figure painted in vibrant acrylic colours to represent the bank's services. Another wall used ceramic installations to express BRAC's institutional identity and core values, while a third involved a metal mural."
Sumita, however, works exclusively with acrylic and plastic paints, as her murals are based entirely on alpana, mandala, and related traditional forms.
While murals are created with long-term impact in mind, their durability varies by medium. Painted murals and digital prints generally last between three and five years, after which repainting or reprinting becomes necessary. Ceramic and metal installations, artists say, can endure much longer if properly maintained.
How much do murals cost?
The cost of interior mural projects can range from several lakhs to crores, depending on scale, complexity, medium, and labour. Artists calculate their fees based on experience, volume of the projects, and the size of the team required for execution.
Tirtho operates through two ventures: Studio Terracotta, which focuses on architectural projects and installations, and Tirthosthan, dedicated to illustration- and painting-based murals.
"As we work with a team and focus on quality, our charges reflect that," he said. "There is no fixed pricing structure, because there is still no standardised market for this sector."
Istela also reflected a similar view. "Considering the time, skill, and effort involved, I believe the budget for a mural in 2026 should not be less than one lakh taka," she said.
A growing trend challenged by AI
Influenced by popular culture and social media aesthetics, younger generations are increasingly drawn to visually expressive commercial spaces, particularly restaurants, cafés, libraries, and lifestyle marketplaces.
"These wall artworks serve two main purposes," said a book cafe owner in Dhaka. "One is to communicate our brand values, and the other is to make the space feel cosy and welcoming for visitors."
Murals have also become a common feature in corporate offices and start-up environments, offering an innovative way to visualise organisational identity. According to Tirtho, the practice existed earlier as well, though on a smaller scale and in more traditional forms. Technological advancement has since made mural production more accessible and comparatively affordable.
However, he expressed concern over the growing reliance on artificial intelligence.
"Today, many people no longer feel the need to commission professional artists," he said. "They can generate AI-produced images, print them, and install them anywhere."
Despite this shift, artists argue that hand-crafted murals — rooted in context, collaboration, and lived experience — continue to offer a depth and authenticity that automated imagery cannot replicate.
