Dealers and collectors say that these regional rivals are unlikely to topple Hong Kong’s position as Asia’s biggest art market.

“At the moment Jakarta has much more of a regional sensibility whereas Hong Kong is still the centre point of the art market in Asia,” says Indonesian art dealer Jun Tirtadji, whose gallery ROH Projects presented artist Bagus Pandega’s Breathe: Exhale (2022) at Art Jakarta.

Singapore-based gallerist Jasdeep Sandhu, who recently opened a new gallery in Jakarta, echoes this sentiment.

“Yes, the Hong Kong market has taken a bit of a hit, but the buying power is still very much there. Even if there is a bit more of an exodus [of buyers], it will remain a very important player.

“But I also think Singapore is still growing as a centre in its own right.”

The mood was buoyant at the Regent Singapore hotel on August 28, where Sotheby’s 50-lot auction netted S$24.5 million (US$17.4 million), surpassing the pre-auction estimate of S$18 million.

This is partly to do with the many wealthy families from mainland China who are emigrating to escape its draconian Covid-19 restrictions, as well as potential Western sanctions.

The saleroom was packed with established local collectors and recent transplants to the city, as well as at least 30 buyers from Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia and South Korea, according to the auction house.

The highest price paid was S$4 million (including buyer’s premium) by a phone bidder who snapped up Walter Spies’ Tierfabel (1928).

Melis (1939) by Willem Gerard Hofker fetched S$2.3 million, double its high estimate, while Singaporean modernist painter Georgette Chen’s Boats and Shophouses (c. 1960) was acquired by a Southeast Asian collector for S$2 million.

Most lots – 76 per cent – were modern works from regional artists, with the small selection of contemporary works by non-regional artists including Michel Majerus’ O.T. (collaboration Nr. 8) (1999), which sold for S$1.1 million, three times its estimate and a record for the artist.

But the top lot – Zao Wou-Ki’s Sans titre, entre août et décembre 1958 (1958) – was among three works that failed to find a buyer. It had an estimate of S$3.8 million to S$4.8 million.

“The result surpassed our expectations and underlines the potential for Singapore and the Southeast Asia region as a whole,” says Jasmine Prasetio, Sotheby’s managing director of Southeast Asia.

Prasetio says the sale was “additive” and not an alternative to their activities in Hong Kong.

The sale comes on the heels of a non-selling exhibition held by Sotheby’s in Vietnam in August, part of the auction house’s various endeavours to connect with Southeast Asian clients on their home turf.

According to Sotheby’s, demand from collectors in the region has been growing exponentially. In the last five years alone, it noted a 75 per cent increase in the number of Southeast Asian participants in global sales.

“It’s still early days but once you start a fire, it spreads,” says Chong Huai Seng, a collector and co-founder of Singapore-based art advisory FOFA (Family Office For Art), who partnered with Sotheby’s house to host presale events.

“There were a lot of old faces but, interestingly, we also saw new residents from mainland China, including some who have set up family offices here. Some were already collectors, but the majority were curious to start collecting.”

Sotheby’s isn’t the only one looking to tap the burgeoning collector base in Singapore.

This month, international art gallery and advisory LGDR announced the appointment of a director of Southeast Asia, Dexter How, who is based out of Singapore.

Earlier in the summer, Phillips held a preview for its spring auctions in Singapore. According to the auction house, total transactions (collectors buying and selling) from Southeast Asia in its global 20th-century and contemporary art sales were up 140 per cent in 2021, compared with 2019.

Phillips, however, isn’t planning to mount a sale in Singapore. Instead it plans to continue staging events and have representatives on the ground in Singapore, Jakarta and Bangkok.

“There is a thirst and hunger for collecting that exists in the region,” says Jonathan Crockett, chairman and head of 20th-century and contemporary art for Asia at Phillips.

“But I would say currently the region is more important for some categories. For watches and jewellery, Singapore and Southeast Asia are typically extremely important and when it comes to art, it’s a region which is redefining itself and has huge potential.”

Crockett is particularly optimistic about the growing number of younger second-generation collectors in the region who he has noticed are open to collecting international names from outside the region.

Tom Tandio, director of Art Jakarta, has also seen a growing number of young Southeast Asian collectors who have a voracious appetite for art, particularly in Indonesia.

“The market is now driven by young collectors,” he says, explaining that grooming the next generation of collectors is one of his fair’s missions.

Millennial buyers from across Southeast Asia were out in full force at Art Jakarta, which ran from August 26 to 28 at the Jakarta Conven­tion Centre and attracted 32,000 visitors.

This year’s edition was more focused on local and regional gallerists, with only 23 foreign dealers among the total of 62 exhibitors.

Most visitors to the fair were locals, but about 150 collectors flew in from neighbouring countries including Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.

Several gallerists, such as Inge Santoso, founder of Jakarta-based Can’s Gallery, noticed a larger contingent of second-generation collectors at the fair this year compared with the 2019 edition.

She says many young buyers in the region tend to gravitate to works with a street-art aesthetic, such as Indonesian artist Arkiv Vilmansa’s Flowers in the Window (2022), a bright painting featuring a cartoonlike character acquired by a young collector for US$10,000.

Ryotaro Ishigami, director and owner of YOD Gallery in Osaka, Japan, who decided to exhibit for the first time this year, said he was particularly interested in tapping into the burgeoning base of young Southeast Asian collectors.

He made several sales, including a gestural graffiti-like portrait Study for Null: Portrait of Someone #064 by Japanese artist Yutaka Hashimoto, which sold for 168 million rupiah (US$11,300).

Modernist works at the fair commanding much higher prices also found homes.

Singapore-based agency Art Agenda, SEA, for instance, sold a vibrant 1964 painting by Indonesian expressionist Affandi close to its asking price of US$480,000 to a local buyer.

Mature collectors snapped up contemporary works by market darlings such as Indonesian artist I Nyoman Nuarta, whose monumental metal locomotive sculpture Poco Loco (2022) sold for US$350,000 to a local collector, who plans to display it in a public venue.

Singapore-based Gajah Gallery sold most of its booth, including Bali-based artist Ashley Bickerton’s rainbow-striped painting Motorcycle (2020), priced at US$240,000, among other works.

Several exhibitors and collectors at Art Jakarta said they were looking forward to the Art SG fair in Singapore to continue the building momentum in the region.

The inaugural edition, which is set to run from January 11 -15, 2023, will feature 150 galleries including international heavyweights such as Gagosian, Pace and David Zwirner, alongside important regional dealers.

“International gallerists have heard about the good appetite for collecting in Singapore and Southeast Asia,” Shuyin Yang, director of Art SG, while explaining the impressive exhibitor list. “The potential for them to also engage a large number of new collectors is truly exciting.”

Yang has also observed a diversification in Singapore’s collecting base, including more second-generation buyers and an influx of Indonesians and mainland Chinese relocating to the city.

Many in the art scene believe the fair will be a barometer to gauge whether Singapore can actually transform into a global art hub.

“Singapore has been trying to foster and promote its art ecosystem for some time,” says New York-based dealer Sundaram Tagore, who has a space in Singapore’s Gillman Barracks gallery district. “That was the incubation period. Now it’s time to deliver.

“But what kind of egg is it going to produce? It all depends on the efforts of the full ecosystem, which includes art fairs, galleries, museums and the tourism board.”

Yang agrees: “Singapore has the potential to become a global art capital, but we never want to underestimate the work that we’re going to have to put in.”