SINGAPORE – Art Stage Singapore will be heading to Jakarta this year with a new boutique art fair catering to the Indonesian art market.

Called Art Stage Jakarta, it will be held from Aug 5 to 7 and will feature up to 50 galleries. Leo Silitonga, who was previously fair director of Bazaar Art Jakarta in 2014 and 2015, comes on board as fair director.

The Jakarta fair, which will be a privately funded affair, will play a complementary role to the bigger Singapore fair, which is the anchor event of Singapore Art Week, organisers said. It will be largely a regional fair, featuring predominantly Indonesian art, while the Singapore edition will still be an international fair that focuses on South-east Asian contemporary art for a more global market.

“Art Stage Jakarta will be for the Indonesian art market and the art community there. Its focus will be on contemporary art from Indonesia and the audience we intend to reach will also be more domestic and regional compared to the international audience that Art Stage Singapore attracts,” said Lorenzo Rudolf, founder and president of Art Stage Singapore and Jakarta.

He added: “Indonesia is the heartbeat of Asia, injecting the region with energy, passion and creativity. It is the most active and influential art market in the region and is a leading centre of art production. Aligning our Singapore fair with our new branch in Jakarta, Art Stage Singapore will be able to offer seamless and comprehensive market opportunities as well as the latest cutting-edge content from the region.”

The organisers added that Art Stage Jakarta is set up to be a long-term venture, although they have no plans to bring the fair to other countries for the moment.

For the Jakarta fair, Silitonga will be assisted by a small team, with the Singapore side supporting it “in various capacities”.

“What has to be done locally will be done from Jakarta and what will be done internationally will be done from Singapore where the expertise lies,” said Rudolf.

Art Stage Singapore will continue to be held in January, with the seventh edition slated for Jan 12 to 15 next year.

The announcement comes at a time when the Singapore edition now finds itself competing with two other art fairs during Singapore Art Week: The hotel boutique fair Art Apart and the new Singapore Contemporary fair. The most recent Art Stage Singapore edition, held last January, featured 173 galleries and drew 40,500 visitors, a drop from the previous year’s attendance of 51,000.

It is no secret that the Singapore fair had been actively wooing Indonesian artists, gallerists and collectors to its previous editions: In 2013, it had an Indonesian Pavilion and Rudolf had previously cited the fair’s difficulties in bringing in Indonesian galleries to the Singapore edition.

“Together, Art Stage Singapore and Jakarta will offer more opportunities for galleries participating in both fairs, giving them strong presence in a flagship fair as well as a boutique fair,” said Rudolf. “They will both provide galleries with a seamless platform to tap into a strong base of international and regional collectors.”