Selling works of arts in Kemang area

Grace Emilia , Contributor, Jakarta

People would regard it strange if someone enrolled in the faculty of arts in the 1970s. But the trend is currently reversing as parents are trying hard to enroll their children in such schools.

"A good piece of art is now seen as an investment which sometimes is even more valuable than gold," says Nyoman Nuarta, a Balinese artist who built the massive Garuda Wisnu Kencana sculpture in Bali.

Nuarta has a point. Good works of art indeed make money especially when combined with good marketing. Kemang area in South Jakarta is witness to this. The residential area where many rich people and foreigners stay has become the center of art, crafts, galleries, ethnic furnitures, arty cafes and fine dining restaurants.

"I chose Kemang as my home and office in 1985 as I saw that people in the neighborhood could appreciate art especially old maps which I am still selling up to now," says Edwin Rahardjo, a photographer and architect, who has a gallery in the area.

His Edwin's Gallery located in Jl. Kemang Raya was one of the first to open in the area. It is also one of the most active galleries in holding art exhibits of various Indonesian artists.

"There was only one gallery besides mine in Kemang back then in 1985," he adds. The number is now growing but most of the existing galleries have yet to use the concept of a "real gallery".

According to him, many galleries are still like a shop that sells goods. "It should not sell what people like, but sell art which you like," he says.

People's appreciation of the arts has been improving during the past several years. Buyers are not only expatriates but also Indonesians.

"About 90 percent of our buyers are now Indonesians," Rahardjo said adding that works of new artists are the most popular in his gallery.

But business is business. Rahardjo's concept of a gallery does not always work. A number of "real" galleries such as Galeri Foto Cahya could not survive due to the lack of buyers. Founded by 29 photographers including leading Indonesian photographer Deniek G. Sukarya in late 1997, it moved to a building in Kemang area in early 2001. However, the photographic gallery had to temporarily close due to the lack of buyers.

"Part of the reason (of the closure) is because the number of expatriates who have the buying power is declining," Sukarya said, adding that the gallery will reopen again in a new building near Kem Chicks supermarket on Jl. Kemang Raya in January 2003.

"Our gallery only made money from selling our works of art. Other photo galleries around the world which I have visited, get financial support from their foundations to keep them going," said Sukarya who sells his pictures for between Rp 2 million (about US$235) and 3.6 million a piece.

Another artist, Josephine Linggar, a realist painter opened Galeri Linggar on Jl. Kemang Timur in April 1996. "We have painting exhibitions of various artists once a month here." says Yatimah, Galeri Linggar's supervisor.

Besides paintings, the gallery also sells antiques and wooden furniture.

Galleries selling antiques and ethnic arts and crafts along Jl. Kemang Timur mostly do good business. One of the starters is Devi Hariman of DC Interior House who was in the 1980s famous as "Lady Beads" amongst expats in the Kemang area.

An architect and interior designer, she was known as a beads and jewelry trader. However, since 1989 Devi started to give more attention to selling antique and ethnic furniture since her customers preferred to buy the jewelry's cupboard rather than the jewelry itself.

She currently employs 200 workers in her five workshops in Jepara, Solo and Jakarta and sells anything from benches to old and delicately carved cupboards. Some of her items are rare antiques but some are taken from unused materials in old houses which are then redesigned into new furniture with an "old look".

"Finding rare antiques is difficult nowadays as most have been sold up, but we can still find antique but ordinary benches from villages in Central and East Java," Devi says.

She says although many expats went home during the peak of the country's worst ever financial crisis in early 1998, her gallery was still able to survive.

"The business is still going well thanks to our exports," she says.