The boutique art fair, Art Stage Jakarta, will take place from 5 to 7 August 2016 at the Sheraton Grand Jakarta Gandaria City Hotel, with a focus on art from Indonesia. It complements Art Stage Singapore, which held its sixth edition earlier this year. With the support of an active collector base, as well as the strength of artworks that have emerged from Indonesia in recent years, Art Stage Jakarta is poised to reinforce Art Stage Singapore’s success and recognition as Southeast Asia’s international flagship contemporary art fair.

Altogether, there will be approximately 50 galleries at the fair. The majority of the galleries will come from Indonesia. From Jakarta, the following galleries will participate: Andi’s Gallery, Galeri Canna, D Gallerie, Edwin’s Gallery, Nadi Gallery, Rachel Gallery, REDBASE Art, ROH Projects, Ruci Art Space and Sunrise Art Gallery. Bandung-based Bale Project, Lawangwangi and Zola Zolu Gallery will also be at the fair, together with Equator Art Projects and Srisasanti Syndicate from Yogyakarta, as well as Semarang Gallery from Semarang.

Galleries from Singapore form the next biggest group, with representation by Art Porters, Element Art Space, Gajah Gallery, Intersections, Mizuma Gallery, Ota Fine Arts, Pearl Lam Galleries and Yeo Workshop. Among these galleries, Gajah Gallery also has a space in Yogyakarta, while Mizuma Gallery and Ota Fine Arts both have spaces in Tokyo, and Pearl Lam Galleries is established in Shanghai and Hong Kong as well.

From elsewhere in Southeast Asia, Manila-based galleries Galerie Joaquin, Galerie Stephanie and The Drawing Room will be presenting their artists at the art fair, along with Kuala Lumpur-based G13 Gallery and Wei-Ling Gallery. And from Asia, Korean galleries Gallery Apple and Johyun Gallery, Japanese galleries COHJU Contemporary Art, Shonandai Gallery and Toki-no-Wasuremono, as well as Taipei-based gallery Nunu Fine Art will be setting up booths at the fair. Other galleries at the fair are Anna Pappas Gallery from Melbourne, Khankhalaev Gallery from Moscow, Schuebbe Inc. from Dusseldorf, and Galerie Perrotin, which has spaces in Hong Kong, Paris and New York.

The Indonesian galleries will be showing the best in contemporary Indonesian art. Fair goers can look forward to the works of both established artists and emerging ones. Nadi Gallery will present well-known artists Agus Suwage, Eddie Hara and Heri Dono, for example, while Galerie Canna will present the works of I Nyoman Masriadi. ROH Projects will show younger artists, including Syaiful Aulia Garibaldi, Syagini Ratna Wulan and Bagus Pandega, and Rachel Gallery will have artists with similar profiles, such as Yuli Prayinto, Eddy Susanto and Ivan Sagita. Some of the galleries are bringing a mix of works from both groups of artists, such as Semarang Gallery, which will show works of Eko Nugroho, Lugas Syllabus, and M. Irfan, among others.

A number of the international galleries will be presenting artists who may be new to Indonesian collectors. Galerie Perrotin will present a selection of artworks from an international group of artists, including Chen Ke, Dong Dawei, Bernard Frize, Laurent Grasso, Izumi Kato, Jean-Michel Othoniel, Park Seo-Bo and Aya Takano.

Some galleries are bringing a combination of local and international artists to the art fair. One such gallery is Mizuma Gallery, which has spaces in Singapore and Japan. It will present works in varied media – from painting and photography to installation and sculpture – by Indonesian artists Agan Harahap, Agung Prabowo, Angki Purbandono, indieguerillas, Nasirun, Pupuk DP, Singapore artist Robert Zhao, as well as Japanese artists Eguchi Ayane, Okada Hiroko, and Ken + Julia Yonetani. Commenting on the selection of artists for the fair, Theresia Irma, gallery manager at the Singapore-based Mizuma Gallery says, “For this inaugural edition of the art fair, we hope to introduce artworks by Singaporean and Japanese artists to the local audience, and to present selected works by local artists alongside international names. As envisioned by Mr Mizuma Sueo, the founder of the gallery, we hope to create a new vector of dialogue within Asia by promoting art and cultural exchange between Singapore, Japan, and Indonesia.”

REDBASE Art, based in Jakarta, will showcase Indonesian and Chinese artists working in various media. Indonesian artists the gallery is bringing to the fair include Ichwan Noor, known for his compacted sculptures of Volkswagen Beetles. They will also show the works of finalists from their Young Artist Award programme at the REDBASE Foundation in Yogyakarta. In addition, they will present new paintings by Chinese artists Luo Qing and Zhu Xingguo. Nancy Nan, Founder and CEO of REDBASE Art says, “We believe our featured artists have great potential in the local and international scenes, both for their interesting and challenging choice of media, and the social and cultural messages that they bear.”

There are also galleries focused on introducing homegrown artists to the Indonesian art market. Kuala Lumpur-based Wei-Ling gallery will present mainly Malaysian artists. “We are delighted to join Art Stage in their first edition of the fair in Jakarta. This will be our first time showing in the city and we are excited about the prospect of introducing contemporary Malaysian art to Indonesian collectors. Representation of Malaysian art has been thin on the international front, so regional fairs like this are important platforms for us,” says the gallery’s founder Lim Wei-Ling. “We will be showing a key selection of our represented artists to present a cross-section of artists working in Malaysia at the moment, namely important socio-political commentator and artist Anurendra Jegadeva, established printmaker Juhari Said, prominent abstractionist Hamidi Hadi and contemporary woman painter, Yau Bee Ling.” The gallery will also bring works of Pakistani sculptor Amin Gulgee who creates copper sculptures.

Participating galleries have expressed their optimism for Art Stage Jakarta. “Having been a part of the hugely successful inaugural Art Stage in Singapore in 2011, we are confident that the Jakarta edition will not fall short,” says Wei-Ling. Mizuma Gallery echoes the same sentiments. “As we actively work with Indonesian artists and collectors, Art Stage Jakarta will be an opportunity for us to catch up with our friends in Indonesia. And of course, by participating in the new Art Stage Jakarta, we hope to be able to expand our horizon and build new contacts,” says Theresia.

The sentiment is that it is the right time for the creation of the fair. Jasdeep Sandhu, founder of Gajah Gallery says, “We feel that this is a positive step for Art Stage, and also for the Indonesian art scene, which we believe has great potential. Gajah Gallery has been involved in the Indonesian art scene for over 20 years, and we have seen it grow from strength to strength, and this fair is indeed a step in the right direction.” Gajah Gallery will show Indonesian artists, including Yunizar, Rudi Mantofani and Mangu Putra and Ashley Bickerton, a long-time American artist residing in Indonesia. In addition, it will present a range of works produced by the Yogya Art Lab, which was co-founded by Jasdeep, Yunizar and Richard Hungerford, formerly the head of print-making at Singapore Tyler Print Institute in 2012, including a crushed glass sculpture by Singapore’s Suzann Victor and a major bronze sculpture by Yunizar.

The traditional art fair format, with its gallery booths, will be complemented by a special exhibition of works from six Indonesian collectors, whose names were not yet announced at time of print. Curated by Enin Supriyanto, the exhibition will be a survey of Indonesian masterpieces, including both modern and contemporary pieces, revealing the themes that Indonesian artists have worked with across time.

A Board of Art Patrons and a Board of Young Collectors have been formed for Art Stage Jakarta. They represent the more established as well as the younger collectors in the Indonesian art scene, and demonstrate the support that the local collectors are lending to the art fair. Presiding over the Board of Art Patrons is preeminent art collector Deddy Kusuma. He says, “I have known Lorenzo Rudolf since he founded and directed SH Contemporary in 2007. His latest project, Art Stage Jakarta, will help Indonesian art in its ambition to go international.”

The Board includes other important collectors in the Indonesian art scene, such as Alex Tedja, the owner of the art fair’s venue, Sheraton Grand Jakarta Gandaria City Hotel, as well as Haryanto Adikoesoemo, founder of the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Nusantara (MACAN) that will soon open, as well as Caecil Papadimitriou, who is the guardian of her late husband’s collection of artworks by modern Indonesian masters.

Working alongside the Board of Art Patrons is the Board of Young Collectors, representing the next generation of art collectors in Indonesia. Its President is Tom Tandio, who was appointed the Regional Director of Indonesia for Art Stage Singapore in 2014. Commenting on the board members’ role, Tom says “We are involved in maximising Art Stage as a platform to contribute to the Indonesian art scene. We will take part in the collectors’ show, organise art talks, host after parties and so on. Everything is still under discussion, but essentially, we are looking to contributing to the success of the fair in any way we can.”

This article was first published in Art Republik.