With a population of more than 280 million, Indonesia accounts for the lion’s share of Southeast Asia’s art market. Its collector base is vast—it is the world’s fourth-most-populous country, after all—and in recent years, talent from the Indonesian art capitals of Jakarta, Yogyakarta and Bandung has been showing up at art fairs in Asia and Europe. At the same time, collectors and art enthusiasts are trekking to the archipelago for the art. “If the global audience wants to buy Southeast Asian art, Art Jakarta is the destination,” Indonesian art collector Aan Andonowati told Observer earlier this year.
Now Bali wants a piece of the art world action. The island has long been stereotyped as one big wellness retreat with yoga studios and vegan restaurants. But scratch beneath the surface of Ubud’s temple-strewn calm or Seminyak’s polished chaos, and you’ll find a contemporary art scene that’s lively and startlingly under-the-radar. Galleries like Nyaman, Naka Contemporary and Superlative Gallery have been quietly doing the work of growing that scene while the art market’s attention orbited elsewhere.
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That may soon change, however, because Bali is getting an international art fair. Art & Bali is set to debut on September 12 across the well-manicured sprawl of Nuanu Creative City—a startup Eden/creative district on the island’s southwest coast. The fair will unfold across five venues, with the Labyrinth Collective art center as its nucleus. Programming will include gallery presentations, exhibitions and immersive installations unified by the theme Bridging Dichotomies, an exploration of the areas between contrasting concepts: tradition and modernity, nature and technology, human and machine.
“Art & Bali is a fresh approach to what an art fair can be, rooted in Bali’s cultural heritage while embracing contemporary and innovative practices,” said the fair’s director, Kelsang Dolma, in a statement. “The ‘&’ symbolizes connection, much like our theme, Bridging Dichotomies, which reflects our vision to foster deeper ties between Southeast Asia, Indonesia, and Bali’s artistic heritage with the global art scene. It is about people-to-people connections, bringing together artists, collectors, institutions and industry leaders to create a truly global art community.”
Art & Bali is positioned to make something rare: an international art fair that’s rooted in place. Nuanu Creative City is home to Daniel Popper’s Earth Sentinels, the twisting symbolic lighthouse known as THK Tower by Arthur Mamou-Mani, new media outpost Aurora Media Park and a panoply of artist residencies and collaboration spaces. A museum dedicated to the work of Eugene Kangawa is set to open in 2026. The fair will be a marketplace, of course, but that marketplace will exist in a self-contained cultural ecosystem that expands the art-buying experience—something that could entice fair-weary collectors, curators and dealers to add one more destination to their already packed calendars.
