The famous Spanish painter, Pablo Picasso once said “Give me a museum and I will fill it.” When Deborah first started as a finance lawyer collecting art at the young age of 26, she knew that art was her museum and she wanted to fill her whole life in it. The first cut is always the deepest and most memorable. Her curiosity for art began when she bought her first painting as a successful banker at an exhibition in Hong Kong. Since then, she never looked back and having studied Russian in university started to collect non-conformists art from the former Soviet Union. After moving to Indonesia in 1991, she officially entered the art world in 1996 by opening Christies, 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, in 2013 she dived into an entirely different spectrum of art; both on the technology side together with art consulting. She’s finally come full circle earlier this year by opening ISA Art and Design, an online and offline gallery.
She notes that the fun of being both an art collector and gallery owner is that “as a gallery owner, you are always looking at what’s new in the market and the 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. In this vein, she and her team noticed the lack of woman artist appreciated and acknowledged within the industry and means to focus on such amazing figures in her Gallery such as representing Indonesian diaspora artists in their ‘other’ home country in forms of multimedia and performance arts. ISA Art and Design also emphasizes new media artists and the third pillar of a thriving secondary market.
integrating the soul of an art piece into the design to provide a more vivacious energy. Quoting Deborah, “Most people did not design their house or offices for art. I always design my house for art and want to share the same spirit with others. You must love what you do to perceive your job as a part of your life”. Hence, ISA Art curating their online and offline shows meticulously to serve the artwork on a luxurious platter.
Especially during serious times such as the COVID-19 pandemic, Deborah and ISA Art & Design opts to digitalize art galleries as even online exhibitions should be viewed as the physical place to display the artwork. To Deborah, collecting and displaying one’s art is not of mere coincidence but is a piece that will stay forever in its medium and generating more meaning even than the price itself. To acknowledge each art as its own masterpiece and finding its home to the rightful collectors requires passion, commitment, and strategic market analysis. Deborah is and always will be the pioneer for providing luxurious art and hopes that this concept transcends into generations.
