Art & Bali 2026: Bali's Art Fair at Nuanu, 11-13 September
- Anushka Lockhart
- 19 hours ago
- 5 min read
Art & Bali 2026 runs 11-13 September at Nuanu Creative City in Beraban, Tabanan - 11am to 8pm daily, about 25 minutes west of Canggu. It is the island's second international art fair: 22 exhibitors from Bali, Jakarta, Bandung, Yogyakarta, Malang, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur, plus a flagship exhibition that stays open until 29 November.
That is the short version. Here is the longer one, and the part nobody puts on the poster: the fair is the smaller half of what actually happens that weekend.
Friday 11 September opens with a media preview at 11am, a VIP preview at 1pm, and public access from 3pm to 8pm. Saturday and Sunday are 11am to 8pm, both fully public. Three days, one ticket, and roughly 44 hectares of site to cover - which is why people who plan it badly see four booths and a coffee queue.
What Art & Bali actually is
Bali has never had a proper international art fair. Museums, yes - ARMA, Neka, Blanco. Galleries, plenty. But a fair, the kind where galleries take booths, collectors fly in and prices are on the wall, did not exist on this island until September 2025.
The debut edition brought 17 galleries, more than 150 artists and over 50 programmes to Nuanu. Its defining moment was Heri Dono's Trokomod - a 7.5-metre hybrid of Trojan horse and Komodo dragon, first shown at the 2015 Venice Biennale, and never before seen in Bali.
The 2026 edition goes wider and stays deliberately small. Twenty-two exhibitors: ARMA, TONYRAKA, Santrian Art Gallery, Gallery Seputih, Batu Belah, Gurat Institute, Pintu Saren and Miwa from Bali; Sangkring from Yogyakarta; Grey Gallery from Bandung; Superlative and Muse from Jakarta; G13 Gallery from Kuala Lumpur; Kotak Art Collective from Singapore and Jakarta; Studio Dinding Luar from Malang; and cross-border platforms working between Indonesia, Spain and Switzerland.
Art & Bali is being built as a meeting point for artists, galleries, collectors and audiences. We want it to grow through the quality of the work presented, the strength of the conversations around it and the relationships that come from it, rather than through scale alone. - Kelsang Dolma, Director, Art & Bali
A practical note on how the fair is made: the booth panels from the 2025 edition are being reused this year rather than skipped. Small thing. Rare thing, in Indonesian events.
The flagship exhibition is the real reason to go
Running in parallel with the fair, Nuanu opens its annual curated exhibition, What the Body Remembers, at Labyrinth Art Gallery on 11 September. It stays on view until 29 November - eleven weeks after the fair packs up.
Lead curator Bandana Tewari, with assistant curator Brina Paska, has brought together 26 artists, designers and studios from Indonesia and India across contemporary art, fashion, textiles, craft and material culture. Two curatorial anchors hold it together: Hand as Archive, and Routes of Exchange.
In practice that means Gaurav Gupta couture hung near Balinese weaving. Raw Mango and Chanakya School from India next to Cinta Bumi Artisans, Setia Cap Cili and Sarita Ibnoe from Bali. Tex Saverio, TOTON, Lulu Lutfi Labibi, Studio Jeje and TANGAN Prive from across Indonesia. Botanical dyeing, embroidery, slow fashion, women-led artisan networks.
It refuses to sort itself into art, fashion, or craft, which is the whole point. If you only have two hours on site, spend ninety minutes here.
Getting there from Canggu
Nuanu sits on Jalan Pantai Nyanyi in Beraban, Kediri, Tabanan - west of Pererenan, past the river, before Tanah Lot. From Padonan and north Canggu it is roughly 20 minutes on a scooter and 25 to 35 in a car, depending entirely on how the Pererenan junction is behaving that afternoon. From Seminyak, add twenty minutes. From Ubud, budget ninety and ignore whatever your map is promising.
Both Villa Zoya and Nomad House are a short run down the coast road from the gate, which makes the fair an easy afternoon rather than a day trip. Our concierge can arrange the car and the driver waits - parking at Nuanu fills fast on event weekends, and circling for a space in the heat is a poor use of a Saturday.
On timing: Friday 3pm to 8pm is the newest and least crowded public window. Saturday morning is the quietest of the weekend proper. Saturday evening is the busiest - the after-dark programming pulls the whole Canggu crowd west. Sunday late afternoon is when gallerists relax and the conversations get good.
How to do the fair properly
Buy tickets ahead through artandbali.com. Nuanu's own entrance tickets have to be bought at least a day before your visit date.
Wear shoes you can walk five kilometres in. The site is 44 hectares, largely outdoors, and a fair amount of it is unpaved.
Carry cash. The larger galleries take cards; independent studios and food stalls often do not.
Ask prices. This is a fair, not a museum. Nobody is offended by the question.
Check the programme page in the week before you go - talks, performances and site-specific work get announced late.
Do not try to fold Tanah Lot into the same afternoon. You will rush both and enjoy neither.
Sunset lands around 6.15pm in mid-September. The site reads completely differently after dark, so if you can only do one slot, make it an evening one.
Frequently asked questions
When is Art & Bali 2026?
11 to 13 September 2026 at Nuanu Creative City, Beraban, Kediri, Tabanan. Public hours are 3pm to 8pm on Friday 11 September, and 11am to 8pm on Saturday 12 and Sunday 13 September. The flagship exhibition, What the Body Remembers, remains open at Labyrinth Art Gallery until 29 November 2026.
How much are tickets to Art & Bali?
General entry at the 2025 edition was IDR 75,000, roughly USD 5. Tickets for 2026 are sold through artandbali.com, and VIP and collector passes are handled separately. Prices had not been fully released at the time of writing, so check the site before you travel.
How far is Nuanu Creative City from Canggu?
About 20 minutes by scooter from north Canggu and Padonan, or 25 to 35 minutes by car. It is on the Tabanan side of the Pererenan river, on the road toward Nyanyi beach and Tanah Lot.
Is Art & Bali worth going to if you are not buying art?
Yes. The fair is only one component - the wider programme covers installations, performance, public talks and the flagship exhibition, and most of it is free to walk through once you are inside the gate. Treat it as a day out at a 44-hectare creative site that happens to have an art fair in the middle of it.
Where to stay for the weekend
Art & Bali falls in the middle of September - shoulder season, dry, and the last quiet stretch before the year-end rush. It is the sensible weekend to be in Canggu, and the design-led crowd the fair attracts tends to want a house that matches. Nomad House is brutalist concrete and glass with three bedrooms, six beds, a private pool and an outdoor bar, fifteen minutes from the beach and a straight run to Nuanu.
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