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Contemporary art tends to shine brightest when shown in a clean setting that puts the art at center stage. Jason Gunawan, the owner of Ark Galerie in South Jakarta, knows this and has made a point of stressing the ambience and look of the showplace in the gallery’s recent revamp.

Jason decided to renovate the gallery after a brainstorming session with co-owner Ronalk Akili.

The goal was to reduce the boundaries of the gallery to provide a more open space where the art would better be able to make an impression on visitors.

So last year, Ark Galerie – on Senopati Raya in Kabayoran Baru –  underwent a two-month renovation to shake things up and to keep pace with evolving trends in the modern art scene.

“We just needed a renovation,” Jason said. “We’re in retail so, from time to time, we have to make changes.”

The gallery’s facade also got a new look. Now the front of the building features hundreds of vintage window frames in teal, chocolate cream and burgundy, joined together to create a charming vintage effect.

Framed by a stand of sidewalk trees and local businesses on each side, the gallery’s new exterior certainly has the power to attract the attention of curious passers-by. “We experimented with old windows as a partition for the facade,” said Jason.

“There’s not a particular design direction, it’s just a result of our creative ideas.” He said there would have been no way to get every window frame to fit perfectly without a little bit of tinkering.

“We had to customize each frame, a bit like customizing a puzzle, in order to fit them all together,” he said.

Walking into the space, you enter an area enclosed by the puzzle walls of the colored frames and lit by a stained-glass lamp.

There is a smattering of mismatched deck furniture to lounge on while enjoying a cup of coffee from the adjoining cafe, or while you discuss your opinions on the latest exhibit with a friend.

Handmade Mexican terracotta tiles marry this sitting area to the inner exhibition space. Inside, the whitewashed walls shrink back to allow whatever art is on display take center stage.

A large antechamber leads to a set of stairs that take wanderers up to a living room-like setting with lowered ceilings and a homely, relaxed feel.

It’s a versatile space, with alcoves for standout pieces worthy of a bit of private pondering.

Even better, the new use of space also allows the gallery to comfortably show more than one artist at a time.

Gallery manager Putri Adju said they tried to create new space by dividing the gallery at a horizontal level, rather than by creating walls to serve as barriers.

“We tried to limit boundaries in the gallery by sectioning the space on different height levels as opposed to creating walls,” she said.

Housed within the same building — accessible through its own entrance or down a flight of stairs from within the gallery itself — is Bakoel Koffie, a cafe serving Western-style food and good, strong coffee.

You can look up into the gallery space from cutout windows in the cabin-like cafe, providing an ever-changing view while enjoying your meal.

The quiet interior offers an inspiring place to sit and tap away on your laptop, meet friends or business partners or just while away the afternoon.

Before the gallery renovation, the coffee shop was located upstairs in the main show area, which didn’t allow enough space for the cafe’s patrons.

She said the advantage of moving Bakoel Koffie downstairs is that now there is enough space for cafe visitors to stretch out and relax.

It also means the gallery space upstairs is much more open and airy. “We are glad to have the proper space for them [Bakoel Koffie] and for their guests as well.

Our relationship with the cafe attracts guests for them and for us,” Putri said. “We wanted to allocate a larger space for the gallery and a more intimate area for the coffee shop,” she said.

The result is an art space that can do justice to any type of work it shows, while offering a relaxed sitting area where guests can recline and ponder all the possibilities of art.