Deborah first started collecting art when she was a finance lawyer at the young age of 26, Her collection began with a Russian painting bought during an art exhibition in Hong Kong. After moving to Indonesia in 1991, she officially entered the art world in 1996 by opening Christie's, the first auction house in Indonesia. She later moved to Sotheby’s before branching out on her own. As a senior player in the art industry, Deborah has now opened her own gallery, ISA Art Gallery, located in central Jakarta.
Her passion is primarily collecting. From her early collection of non-conformist art from the Soviet Union, she moved on to Vietnamese art when she first started at Christie's in 1996, collecting work by Le Pho, Mai Thu, and Vu Cao Dam. In the nascent days of the post-Soeharto period, she started looking at Indonesian contemporary art. She visited the studios of Agus Suwage, Yunizar, Masriadi, and Rudy Mantovani, among others. She systematically started collecting works by the top contemporary artists like Arahmaiani, Heri Dono, Jompet, and others.
As a gallery owner, she is always looking at what’s new in the market with new young artists, and as a collector, she is still building her collection by supporting the young artists through personal acquisitions. One of the missions of the Gallery is the promotion of women artists, and Indonesian Diaspora artists resonate with her, being a dual-nationality family.
