On a rain-soaked afternoon last summer, Nyoman Masriadi sat smoking in his luxurious home studio in the north of Yogyakarta, Indonesia’s unofficial art capital on the island of Java. He lit up a Marlboro and, making a gesture toward the rice paddy adjacent to his property, explained he had recently bought it. I asked what he planned to do with the land. “Maybe build a new studio,” he said without any sense of urgency. Such is the demand for his wry paintings of pumped-up, cartoonish characters that he has the luxury of working when he wishes.

In the Western art world, Masriadi is known as one of the region’s most successful contemporary artists. His triptych Man from Bantul (The Final Round), 2000, a powerful allegory of Indonesian politics, sold at Sotheby’s Hong Kong in 2008 for $Hk7,820,000 ($1.1 million), then a record for a living southeast Asian artist at auction. The price was more than five times the high estimate—not bad for an artist who 10 years ago was selling paintings to tourists on his native island of Bali. Today, he is represented by Gajah Gallery in Singapore and Paul Kasmin in New York.

In the Indonesian art scene, however, Masriadi, 40, is recognized as only one of several talents who have emerged over the past decade to make the country a powerful force 
in the regional market. The latest signal of that rise came in January, when the Art Stage Singapore fair hosted a dedicated Indonesian pavilion, featuring a curated exhibition of 36 artists and collectives. Four Indonesian galleries showed in the fair’s main section, and international dealers such as Arndt from Berlin and Arario from South Korea exhibited work by Indonesian artists.

International dealers and collectors have begun to take notice, due in part to a tide of exhibitions in museums and
at art fairs all around the world over the past few years. In 2010 French art fair Art Paris + Guests hosted “The Grass Looks Greener Where You Water it,” an exhibition of the country’s artists. “Trans-figurations: Mythologies Indonésiennes” drew more than 50,000 visitors to the Espace Culturel Louis Vuitton in Paris over the summer of 2011, concurrent with “Indonesian eye: fantasies and realities” at the Saatchi Gallery in London. “Beyond the east” opened that fall at the Museum of Contemporary art of Rome. Last year, Art Dubai had a focus on Indonesian galleries and artists. And “Rally: Contemporary Indonesian art” was on view at the National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, through April 2013.

On my Indonesian visit last summer, I encountered a diverse, vibrant artist community making outstanding work geared increasingly to an international audience. Sotheby’s and Christie’s have representatives in Jakarta, as does Gagosian Gallery. Regional galleries, such as Gajah, a major dealer in Indonesian work, have branches in Yogyakarta. They are there to build artist relationships and to source work, but also to cultivate a growing collector base. Budi Tek, Oei Hong Djien, Alex Tejada, and Deddy Kusuma are among the more prominent local collectors, but there are many others, too.

This is not the first time Indonesian artists have found their way onto the art world stage. In
 the 1990s, their work appeared to be on the verge of a market and museum boom, with artists like Dadang Christanto, Heri Dono, FX Harsono, and Agus Suwage regularly presented in international biennales and gallery and museum shows.

However, the lack of gallery and auction infrastructure made it difficult for artists’ markets to find the support necessary to evolve and grow. And the Asian financial crisis of the late 1990s—not to mention the economic and political chaos following the fall of longtime president Suharto in 1998—inhibited the establishment of collector bases at home and abroad. These developments coincided with the rise of China as an economic and cultural power, overshadowing Indonesia’s artists. All the buzz had fizzled out by 2005, the last year Indonesia presented a pavilion at the Venice Biennale, presenting the work of four artists: Noor Ibrahim, Krisna Murti, Yani Mariani Sastranegara, and Entang Wiharso.

Times change: Indonesia, the world’s fourth most populous country, is experiencing its own resource-driven economic miracle, with GDP growing at 6.5 percent annually. The Economist predicts the country’s GDP will surpass that of the U.K. by 2030. With affluence has come a desire on the part of the wealthy to show off their taste through the acquisition of art. Demand has pushed up prices, which in turn has precipitated investment in the local gallery and auction infrastructure.

Today, there are at least five serious auction houses and dozens of commercial galleries in Jakarta and still more in Bandung and Yogyakarta, quieter regional cities where artists tend to live. Museums and nonprofit spaces, sadly few and far between, lag behind Western standards in both collecting and presentation, with the exception of Cemeti Art House in Yogyakarta—though even here, infrastructure is basic. Capping these practical developments is the symbolically significant relaunch of an Indonesian pavilion in Venice this year, featuring the work of Sri Astari, Eko Nugroho, Albert Yonathan Setiawan, Titarubi, and, in a return engagement, Wiharso.

Beyond increasing prices for the artworks at galleries and at auction, the most important reason the international art market has decided to take another look at Indonesian 
art is that it has changed. It is more cosmopolitan, less obviously grounded in local social or political issues. During and immediately after the Suharto presidency, Indonesian artists showed bravery with their commitment to make work that exposed and grappled with poverty, graft, and military and political abuses. As a result they won the favor of international critics and curators, but many artists found their work censored. Some were jailed. Hounded for his political work, Christanto took refuge in Australia in 1999. Other artists headed to Europe.

These days, politics are less polarized, civil society is less tense, and artists address a greater variety of themes. That plays well to collectors both at home and abroad. Hong Kong auctions are a microcosm of the broader regional market’s upward trajectory. Christie’s and Sotheby’s have expanded their business footprints across Asia in recent years and have been aggressive in bringing important Indonesian works to the attention of the wider art world. In May 2009, Christie’s Hong Kong–based Southeast Asian modern and contemporary art sales grossed $2.6 million; Sotheby’s spring sale took in $3.7 million. Those figures more than doubled in 2010 and then grew again, if more modestly, reaching $6.34 million at Christie’s sale in May 2011, while Sotheby’s sold $12.35 million that season, with the work of several Indonesian artists among the top lots.

One of the founding fathers of modern Indonesian art, Hendra Gunawan, earned the record for any Southeast Asian painting, modern or contemporary, when Snake Dancer, 1977, brought $HK16.3 million ($2.1 million) at Sotheby’s in April 2011. That was superseded in October 2012 when the same house sold Lee Man Fong’s Fortune and Longevity, 1951, for $HK34.3 ($4.4 million). Overall in 2012, Sotheby’s realized $28 million, another impressive result for its Southeast Asian modern and contemporary art sale, cementing its dominance. Christie’s, meanwhile, changed tack and merged Southeast Asian sales with those for modern and contemporary Asian
art in an effort to consolidate consignments and buyers.

“International auction houses like Sotheby’s moved into this market in the mid 1990s,” explains Mok Kim Chuan, director of China and Southeast Asia and head of the Southeast Asian painting department at Sotheby’s in Singapore. “And ever since, we have played a significant role in taking Indonesian art—modern and contemporary—to the next level through the engagement of a broader client base worldwide, which has in turn boosted interest and demand, leading to steadily rising prices in recent years.” Since overseeing the house’s inaugural auction of contemporary Southeast Asian paintings in 1999, Mok has brokered record prices for artworks by several modern and contemporary Indonesian artists, including Affandi, Fong, Gunawan, Masriadi, Handiwirman Saputra, Sindoedarsono Sudjojono, and Suwage.

Christie’s is no less bullish. “In the second half of 2011 and 2012, we saw a definite growing interest in 20th-century Indonesian art running parallel to the expanding market for contemporary art,” says Wang Zineng, specialist in Asian 20th-century and contemporary art, Southeast Asia region, for Christie’s. “A good number of younger and foreign buyers are fleshing out their collections of Indonesian art with the works of preceding generations of artists who were active from the immediate postwar period to the 1980s. At the same time, the market for contemporary Indonesian art is expanding geographically, with new buyers emerging from Europe, the Middle East, and America, growing from the traditional base of Indonesian and Southeast Asian art collectors.”

Such market success has spurred competition. Amalia Wirjono, a former Indonesian market representative for Christie’s, now works for Gagosian Gallery Hong Kong from a base in Jakarta, where her job is to source work and manage relationships with important local collectors. Enthusiastic and articulate, she comes across as a persuasive ambassador for her native country’s artists. “You are going to be hearing much more about all these artists,” she says. “It is not just that they are talented and smart, because Indonesia has always had talented artists. We now have the collectors here and elsewhere who believe in the artists. There has been a real shift in mindset. People have suddenly woken up to what we have here. We never had that commitment before, that kind of belief and investment.”

Wirjono was my guide in Jakarta and helped me navigate the local art scene, not to mention some of the world’s worst traffic congestion. Jakarta is home to the two largest auction houses in Indonesia, Larasati and Borobudur—which have branched out to hold sales in other countries in the region and established offices in Europe—as well as most of the better galleries. Ark, Nadi, Vanessa, Mon Décor, and Edwin’s are among the most prominent, mixing modern and contemporary Indonesian art with local crafts, including wood carving, that are popular in collecting circles. Chinese art is also popular, especially among local collectors of Chinese descent. Tek, for example, owns works by Ai Weiwei, Fang Lijun, and Zhang as well as pieces by Western artists Maurizio Cattelan, Antony Gormley, and Anselm Kiefer and Indonesians like Christanto, Nugroho, Putu Sutawijaya, Suwage, and Yunizar, to name but a few. He exhibits his ever-expanding collection in downtown Jakarta and plans to open a new space in Shanghai later this year.

Kusuma, who is also an Indonesian of Chinese descent, likewise owns works of prominent Chinese modern and contemporary artists (Zhang Huan, Wang Guangyi, and Yue Minjun) and Westerners (Auguste Rodin and Fernando Botero) alongside his diverse holdings by Indonesians such as Affandi, Astari, Badruzzaman, Dono, and Nugroho. He is still collecting, but after 35 years of buying art he now goes about it at a more leisurely pace. After showing off some of his favorite works—on display in his home in a gated community on the edge of a golf course—he recalled buying his first Masriadi, Diet Sudah Berakhir (“The Diet Ends”), 1999, which today hangs in his home among other paintings by the artist. Showing a man handcuffed to a toilet thinking about fried chicken as a nurse looks on, the painting cost about $1,000 at a gallery in Ubud on Bali. Asked what drew him to the artist’s work, Kusuma says, “It was so different, filled with ideas and deep meanings, symbolic yet playful. It immediately felt important.”

Along with the auction houses, Western dealers have noticed the quality of art coming out of Indonesia and moved into the market. Tyler Rollins Fine Art in New York was among the first: The gallery began working with Indonesian artists in 2009 and today represents Harsono and Suwage; this past spring Suwage showed paintings and sculptures in his second solo exhibition at the gallery. Rollins is optimistic about the potential of the market. “There has been tremendous change in interest since 2009,” he says. “Having lots of Indonesian artists in biennials and triennials and museum shows has put Indonesia on the art world radar. Of course there is still a long way to go, but it has greatly improved the market, which has now truly globalized.”

Other New York galleries showcasing top Indonesian artists include Lombard Freid Projects, which represents Nugroho, and Kasmin, which in 2011 presented Masriadi’s first solo show in the United States, with prices ranging from $200,000 to $350,000. It was a sellout, “with all paintings sold to American and British collectors,” says Nick Olney, the gallery’s director. In Europe, galleries showcasing Indonesian artists include the Christian Hosp and Arndt galleries in Berlin, Primo Marella Gallery in Milan, and Ben Brown, with locations in London and Hong Kong. Brown agrees with Rollins that the market is strong but points out that many of the buyers are familiar to dealers who have previously worked with Asian art. “It’s all the usual suspects who are buying Indonesian art,” Brown says. “I mean the first people to get in on the Chinese art market: Uli Sigg, Guy Ullens, French and Swiss buyers. It is exactly the same crowd.”

Indonesian artists are also well represented in galleries across the region, especially in Singapore, which is in many ways the regional hub for Indonesian art. Jasdeep Sandhu of Gajah, in Singapore and Yogyakarta, has been showing Indonesian artists since 1996 and is among the most longstanding, dedicated, and reputable dealers. His downtown Singapore gallery, in a colonial building
 off Orchard Road, shows the work of major Indonesian artists, including Masriadi, whom he manages globally, and Yunizar, a fast-rising talent.

Sandhu travels to Indonesia once a month to meet with artists and source artworks. In Yogyakarta he recently opened Yogya Art Lab, an impressive building with downstairs workshops and upstairs offices and a gallery, where he invites artists to come, stay, and experiment with new materials. Yunizar was in residence when I visited, developing some three-dimensional works with handmade paper. Last fall Ashley Bickerton made use of the residency’s resources to create a sculpture for the new Art13 fair in London. He was followed by Saputra. “Yogyakarta is the center of traditional Javanese arts and crafts,” Sandhu explained, “and the city is teeming with these great artisans.” He is convinced that for Indonesian artists to achieve further market success they need to innovate. “There is so much talent here, and unlocking that creativity is the key. I want to create a space here where artists can experiment to fulfill their potential. This will be the future of Indonesian art going forward. It is such an asset.”

Life is relaxed and good in Yogyakarta, and it is easy to see why the artists want to live there as opposed to Jakarta, where the business and collectors are. Yogyakarta is also home to the Indonesian Institute of the Arts, one of the country’s best art schools. Most artists live and work in the southern part
of the city, an old colonial district in which grand old homes are interspersed with rice paddies. Several not-for-profit art spaces are clustered in the neighborhood, including Cemeti Art House, which was the first contemporary art space in Indonesia and is well known locally and regionally as an incubator for younger talent. The last few years have also seen the emergence of Langgeng Art Foundation, the brainchild of Deddy Irianto, who also runs Langgeng Gallery in Magelang; and Sangkring, which means “art space,” owned and run by Sutawijaya, a successful older Indonesian artist.

But it is the breadth and depth of the community of artists that is the real draw: Jumaldi Alfi, Saputra, Suwage, Ugo Untoro, Wiharso, and Yunizar all have studios in Yogyakarta, as does Nugroho, who in 2012 had a solo show at the Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris. In addition to shows with Lombard Freid in New York, he shows in Seoul at Arario, in Jakarta at Ark, in Paris at SAM Art Projects, and in Berlin at Arndt. He is typical of the successful artists in Yogyakarta insofar as his work remains firmly rooted in
his native country but is interconnected with the wider world. The day I visited his studio, he was working on drawings 
of comic book heroes applied in a batik style using traditional techniques. “Some people in Paris told me they didn’t understand my work,” he said. “I told them that
was a good sign, that to really appreciate it they have to meet the culture halfway. It takes understanding of who 
we are to appreciate all the meanings and symbols.”