TABANAN, Bali (BPN) – Art & Bali opens on Friday (September 12, 2025) as the island’s first international art fair, transforming Nuanu Creative City into a stage for contemporary art.
With 17 galleries, more than 150 artists, and over 50 programs, the fair marks a turning point for Bali as a cultural hub in Southeast Asia—one where ancestral memory and digital futures meet.
For Lev Kroll, CEO of Nuanu Creative City, the fair is also a realization of the creative city’s founding principles.
“Nuanu was built to be a place where creativity drives everyday life. It shows how Bali’s philosophy and spirit can speak to the world through art and culture,” he said.
At the heart of Art & Bali 2025 is the theme “Bridging Dichotomies” — a curatorial and conceptual framework that explores the intersections of opposites: tradition and modernity, nature and technology, human creativity and artificial intelligence.
In a region where cultural heritage is inseparable from everyday life, this approach highlights Bali as a site of convergence, dialogue, and transformation.
“For me, Art & Bali is about rooting an international conversation in Bali. It’s about honoring the traditions that shape us here, while opening the door for new voices and encounters that can only happen when people truly meet,” said Kelsang Dolma, Director of Art & Bali.
The inaugural edition of Art & Bali features an international roster of exhibitors and artists from Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Singapore, and Spain.
From Santrian Art Gallery, celebrated for its dialogue between Balinese tradition and bold contemporary practice, to the Asia Pacific Print Club, advancing printmaking across the region, and Feb Gallery Tokyo, known for cross-cultural experimentation.
Other participants include Art Agenda, Bagia Art Space, CONNEC ART, Dalam Seniman, Kotak: Art Collective, LAKU Art Space, Lucy Dream Art, N-CAS ISI BALI, Purga Artspace, RUANG//, Spacecraft Gallery, Superlative Gallery, Umah Seni Shibumi, Waworuntu Gallery and Morabito Art Villa.
Each edition of Art & Bali will be anchored by a curated exhibition.
For its debut, curator Mona Liem presents Terra Nexus, a high-energy new media show featuring over 30 artists from Indonesia and abroad.
From immersive installations to collaborations between digital artists and traditional carvers, the exhibition explores how art, ecology, and technology converge.
“This exhibition is a showcase of holistic expression. It is a stage where technology and science dance together with art to spark innovation rooted in local cultural context,” said Mona Liem.
For the first time in Bali, audiences will encounter Trokomod, Heri Dono’s monumental 7.5-meter installation first unveiled at the 2015 Venice Biennale.
A hybrid of Trojan Horse and Komodo dragon, the work is both fantastical and political, a vessel for Indonesia’s voice on the global stage.
Its unveiling at Nuanu, accompanied by a site-specific performance from Bali-based collective Kitapoleng, is one of the fair’s defining moments.
Art & Bali signals the beginning of a different kind of fair—one built with care for people and place.
From sustainable booth design to direct support for the Nuanu Social Fund, responsibility is embedded in its foundation.
More than a marketplace, it is a meeting ground where art strengthens community and amplifies the conversations shaping Bali’s place in the global art world.
 as the island’s first international art fair, transforming Nuanu Creative City into a stage for contemporary art. ){kind=link}