Ease of access to extravagant works of art and furnishings is often arduous in Indonesia. But one-stop online platform Indonesian Luxury, developed by professional art curator Deborah Iskandar, is now making it much easier for arts and design enthusiasts to access artwork masterpieces in Indonesia and Singapore.
PHOTO BY Indonesian Luxury doc.
Accessible luxury. It is possibly the first in Indonesia – an e-commerce platform and listing service for luxurious furniture, art, architecture and property within the reach of those who live across the archipelago.
Namely Indonesian Luxury, the online platform aims to solve accessibility issues to luxurious goods, including artworks and furnishings, while also showcasing the top-tier of galleries, artists, architects and interior designers in Indonesia. The mastermind behind the platform is Deborah Iskandar, the American-born founder of the art consultation service ISA Art Advisory. Known as an accomplished curator, and having formerly worked for Sotheby’s and Christie’s, Deborah started to develop the idea five years ago, while also looking for the right people to partner with. The result is a partnership with two other co-founders: Erlangga Boenawa, the face behind interior design firm LAFLO and a young Indonesian art collector, Katiana Selopranoto.
A 360 DEGREE SOLUTION
Since going live in July 2017, Indonesian Luxury has already curated and listed hundreds of local and international artists with various backgrounds, interior designers, furnishing brands and galleries in Singapore and Indonesia.
With a prestigious network and list in hand, Deborah’s idea is to create an ecosystem that promotes home grown artists and designers, while also encouraging people to have ‘art’ in mind when designing homes, offices or other commercial spaces. Visioning ahead, she hopes to increase the collector base and create a ripple effect in supporting artists and the creative industry as a whole.
Once you become a member, the e-commerce platform will guide you to connect to artists or designers and offers a consultation ‘concierge service’. For professional artists and designers, the website is a prestigious wall with big names that would also help them to expand their connections. Plus, with the vast network the team posses, members or clients can benefit by getting a more reasonable price when purchasing luxury products.
THE PHILOSOPHY
For those who wish to dispose or trade their art through her network of collectors, Deborah believes that an online platform with easy, open access solves time management issues both for the clients and for the professional artists and designers – although with one prerequisite: “everything needs to be available here.”
Indonesian Luxury raises awareness of the limited availability of luxury art and furnishings in Indonesia and expands the knowledge of products available. Despite the availability issue, Deborah realizes that putting art in mind is not a priority in the design process in the architectural and interior design world.
A simple example is when designing an office. Instead of considering art at the beginning of a project, designers often treat it as an afterthought at the end. As people are spending more of their time at their office instead of at home, the potential demand for office projects is very high.
ON HOW TO SPEND
Deborah explains that there are two rules to be applied when spending money on art: the couch rule and the car rule.
“You should spend the same amount of money on the art that goes over the couch as you do on the couch,” she says. “While the car rule is if you spend IDR one billion on a car, you can spend one billion on a painting. The car for sure will not go up in value, but the painting at least has the opportunity to increase in value.”