From 3-5 October 2025, Art Jakarta returns to the Jakarta International Expo (JIExpo) for the third time. First established in 2009, the fair has become a key platform for galleries, collectors, and artists in the region. This year’s edition features 75 galleries from 16 countries, of which over half are Indonesian galleries and 15 are first-timers at the fair.

Returning to Art Jakarta after a several-year hiatus is Taipei’s Tina Keng Gallery, which will showcase works by Taiwanese artists Charwei Tsai, Chen Ching-Yuan, Su Meng-Hung, and Su Xiaobai, as well as Myanmar-born artist Sawangwongse Yawnghwe. Addressing themes of tradition, displacement, and identity, the selection was chosen with an eye for the “cultural richness and collecting sensibilities of Southeast Asian audiences.”

Gajah Gallery, which has outposts in Singapore, Jakarta, and Yogyakarta, has participated in Art Jakarta since its earliest editions. The centrepiece of this year’s presentation is a recent sculpture by acclaimed Indonesian artist Yunizar. Entitled Pohon Buah (Fruit Tree), the 228-cm-tall aluminium tree is the artist’s largest sculpture to date, and brims with a silvery assortment of tropical fruit including durians, jackfruits, mangoes, and papayas. Besides this, the gallery will also highlight the interconnected practices of four notable Indonesian artists in a special MUMOTOMO feature, and show a wide selection of established, mid-career, and emerging artists from across Southeast Asia.

Like many other galleries, Gajah Gallery considers Art Jakarta to be a crucial platform in its calendar year. A representative for the gallery adds: “What makes Art Jakarta distinctive is its uniquely Indonesian character. The fair combines sophistication with a spirit of conviviality, creating a space where serious conversations about art and collecting unfold within an atmosphere of warmth and accessibility. We have found its audiences — both local and international — to be discerning, engaged, and genuinely curious, often seeking to connect with Southeast Asian art in ways that are thoughtful and sustained.”

Fair highlights

Each year, large-scale art installations punctuate the fair’s sprawling expanse under the title SPOT. 2025’s SPOT section stars works by the five Indonesian artists Adi Gunawan, Aditya Novali, Ardi Gunawan, Endry Pragusta, and Ipeh Nur.

Working with newly founded gallery ara contemporary, which is making its Art Jakarta debut, Nur will present The Waves Haven’t Slept — a cave-like space combining personal memories of her grandfather with the cultural legend of the powerful Nyai Roro Kidul, known in Sundanese and Javanese mythology as the Queen of the South Sea. Besides this installation, ara contemporary will also bring work by over a dozen Southeast Asian artists, including Malaysia’s Marcos Kueh and Singapore’s Lai Yu Tong.

Visitors can also anticipate spectacular presentations from the fair’s corporate partners. Julius Baer, the Swiss wealth management group, will be collaborating with Indonesian artist Eddie Hara, who has lived in Switzerland for nearly three decades.

At the Julius Baer VIP Lounge, guests can enjoy works from Hara’s long-running series Postcards from the Alps — which archives his life in Switzerland through irreverent, riotous doodles on upcycled envelopes — and the new large-scale painting CALL 911. DESTROY BAD ART, which like much of Hara’s work features bizarre, chimerical creatures in a colourful street-art-inspired style.

Indonesian investment app Bibit will showcase 60 of Agus Suwage’s darkly humorous self-portraits, in which he overlays his own face with objects and symbols such as an overturned bucket, a halved papaya, the head of a parrot, and a bottle of cleaning fluid. Meanwhile, local gold investment platform Treasury supports Reserve of Care, a collaborative work by artists Azizi Al Majid and Nuri Fatimah. Encouraging visitors to sit at the table and explore its various peepholes, drawers, and other interactive elements, the piece seeks to convey themes of connection, safety, and family.

This year, the fair’s AJX section will feature three focused presentations of Korean, Indonesian, and Balinese artists respectively. Additionally, visitors can look forward to a preview of Art Jakarta Papers — a new contemporary art fair, focused on the medium of paper, which will debut in February next year.

Finally, Art Jakarta’s SCENE section remains a signature of the fair. Alongside the gallery booths, booths by studios, collectives, and artist groups will offer not just one-off artworks but also merchandise and publications at affordable price points. This section not only provides artists with an additional income stream to fund their projects, but also makes the fair a more accessible experience for newer and younger art audiences.

This unique SCENE section is in line with Art Jakarta’s mission of being an international art fair with a local focus, firmly embedded in the Indonesian context. Artistic Director Enin Supriyanto recalls that in the fair’s early days, the team would jokingly express a desire to not be an “alien ship” — something that descended upon the city for a brief time and left behind only mysteries. “Art Jakarta,” he says, “is supposed to mean something for our own art ecosystem.”

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Art Jakarta will run at JIExpo Kemayoran from 3-5 October 2025. Find out more and get tickets at artjakarta.com.

Read our previous recaps of Art Jakarta 2019, 2022, 2023, and 2024!

Header image: Agus Suwage, Self Portrait and the Theater Stage / Potret Diri dan Panggung Sandiwara (2019–2020), oil and mixed media on zinc, mounted on aluminium, 60 pieces, approximately 480 x 600 cm. Image courtesy of the artist and Bibit.