Office Art Curation for Corporate Spaces: The Zymeworks Biopharmaceutical Collection in Bellevue

Art Meets Science: Curating the Collection at Zymeworks

There’s a particular kind of satisfaction in finding art that speaks directly to the work happening inside a building. Thoughtful workplace art programs can transform offices and reflect the unique identity of each company. Take Zymeworks, for instance — a biopharmaceutical company developing novel medicines for patients with difficult-to-treat cancers. For a client like this, the connection between science and art wasn’t just possible; it was irresistible. After all, curating art for a corporate space is especially impactful when you choose pieces that mirror a company’s core mission — in this case, scientific innovation.

With that in mind, we curated a diverse collection for Zymeworks’ Seattle office. Specifically, we placed works by five artists throughout the lobby, hallways, and common areas. As a result, the space feels energetic and considered in equal measure — as alive as the research taking place inside. Ultimately, it’s a clear example of how a well-executed art collection can transform a workplace’s atmosphere.

The Lobby: An Eruption of Color

The first thing you see when you enter the Zymeworks offices stops you in your tracks. Immediately, Andrea Myers’ large-scale fabric collage fills the wall behind the reception seating area. It’s an explosion of layered fabric strips in every color imaginable, radiating a joyful, restless energy. Yet the artist carefully places each strip, resulting in a composition that ripples with movement and light.

The contrast with the quiet cream seating and neutral carpet below is deliberate and effective. After all, in a research environment, the work can be painstaking and incremental. So there’s something powerful about being greeted each day by something this unabashedly alive.

Meanwhile, a second Myers piece hangs deeper in the space against a deep navy accent wall. Here, the same exuberant language of color takes on a different register. Contained within a neutral background, the work becomes more focused, and its details are more legible. Ultimately, the navy throws every color into sharp relief.

The Hallways: Where the Art Gets Personal

Move through the office and the collection shifts in tone. Gradually, it becomes more meditative — and in one case, more directly in conversation with Zymeworks’ scientific identity. Overall, this reflects a core principle of office art curation for corporate spaces: creating a cohesive experience, even as the artworks themselves shift in feel or theme.

Here, Rebecca Stern’s large abstract painting anchors the main corridor. It’s a quietly commanding presence: layered planes of sage, gray, teal, and cream, with gestural marks and hints of red threading through the composition. At once, it reads as landscape and as something more interior — making it a painting that rewards returning to, exactly right for a hallway people walk every day.

David Bellard’s works are perhaps the most conceptually resonant pieces in the collection. We placed several pieces from his ‘Radiance’ series throughout the office. The pairing of artist and client feels almost predestined. Bellard works in analog film and transparency compositions. He builds circular forms from light and film that radiate outward from a dense center. The result looks uncannily like imagery from a microscope: cellular, precise, alive with structure. For a company built around understanding molecular biology, the visual resonance is both intentional and striking.

In the kitchen, three intaglio prints on rag paper by Nancy Mintz make an immediate impression against the deep navy wall. Mintz works through the slow, exacting process of intaglio printmaking. The result is work with a remarkable depth of mark. These three circular compositions each radiate outward from a dense, intricate center in pure black and white. Against the navy, they feel almost luminous. Their hand-made intimacy offers a thoughtful counterpoint to the precision of the surrounding environment — and they hold their own beautifully beside the Bellard pieces nearby.

Finally, a selection of prints by Brooke Fitts rounds out the collection. Here, her distinctive photographic sensibility grounds the collection in the Pacific Northwest landscape, offering a moment of stillness amidst the energy of the office.

On Curating for Scientific Spaces

Science-driven workplaces are among the most rewarding environments to curate for. After all, the people working in them learn to look closely — and a researcher who spends their day examining things at the molecular level brings that same quality of attention to the art on the walls. With that in mind, we built the collection at Zymeworks to meet that same scrutiny. Indeed, every piece holds up to close looking, offers something new each time, and quietly reflects the curiosity that drives the work happening inside. Ultimately, effective office art curation for corporate spaces should do more than decorate — it should support inspiration and focus in scientific work by elevating the surroundings.

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Interested in bringing original art into your office or scientific workspace? Contact us to learn more about our commercial art consulting services. Above all, office art curation for corporate spaces can help unify a business’s values, aesthetics, and sense of place..