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Singapore. Her Indonesian-born father did not want Helina Chan to go to art school for fear that she would become a "beggar,” but she went down the art route anyway.  

Far from living hand to mouth, this Shanghai-born, Hong Kong-bred dealer has become one of the most prominent personalities in the Singapore gallery scene as the sole local agent of artists such as Taiwanese master sculptor Ju Ming and Nobel laureate Gao Xingjian, also a renowned painter.  

She has two galleriesunder the name iPreciation - one that opened in 2003 in the Fullerton Hotel and a newer one in Hong Kong's Jardine House - which together have an eight-figure annual turnover.  

Her speciality? Emerging Indonesian artists and Chinese contemporary artists whom she personally selects by visiting their studios.  

Dressed in a cream-colored Chanel jacket and jeans, she oozes confidence. Diamonds sparkle on her ears and neck, but she is critical of the local scene.   

On the Singapore Government's push to make Singapore an arts city, the plain speaker says in American-accented English: “I think we lost it when the auction houses moved out.”  

Chan, 48, is referring to Christie's and Sotheby's, the auction bigwigs who moved from Singapore to Hong Kong in 2002 and 2007, respectively. Now, Hong Kong has become the third largest auction market after London and New York, which was the reason she set up a branch of her gallery there in 2009.  

Singapore may have seen several regional auction houses pop up here recently, and several international art fairs held as the scene develops, but Chan is unimpressed.  

The auction houses left in Singapore are “mediocre,” she declares. “They have no specialists. You need specialists to see the authentication and source of the artwork.”  

She says that art fairs such as the high-profile Art Stage and long-running ARTSingapore are mostly marketing strategies by dealers.

“I don't expect to go into an art fair to sell. People go to art fairs to party, to be seen, to meet people. They don't expect to close deals. Whereas auctions are business where money gets transacted.”  

Collector and family friend Koh Seow Chuan, founder of DP Architects, has bought some Indonesian artworks from Chan. The prolific art collector says that “her success story is a combination of aesthetic sense, knowing how to pick the right artists and being very focused and working very hard.”  

It is hard to believe that she stumbled into the art business almost by accident - she came to Singapore in 1997 looking to retire from a 10-year career in the fashion industry.  

Her cosmopolitan outlook has a lot to do with her background. Her parents were Indonesian-born Chinese who moved to Shanghai to study Chinese in the 1950s but ended up living there. Her father was an accountant and her mother a housewife.  

She is the younger of two daughters born in Shanghai and educated in Hong Kong. Her first job was working for American casualwear brand Polo Ralph Lauren, then for a clothing manufacturer and, finally, in sales.  

Run ragged by the long hours and constant traveling, she came to Singapore to enjoy life in a less crowded and fast-paced city. She also got divorced from her husband but declined to give details.  

Earlier, she had invested in an art gallery in Hong Kong and thought that she would do some art projects in Singapore to pass the time.   She brought in Hong Kong sculptor Cheung Yee's works for a show at the Alliance Francaise in 1999 and these were later shown at the Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts gallery.  

At DP Arts Space she developed and planned her business strategy for six months and finally moved out to rent a shophouse in Kim Yam Road.  

Two-and-a-half years later, she moved to the 1,600 sq ft space in the Fullerton, where she has remained until today.  

One of her biggest coups was securing the sole dealership rights for sculptor Ju in South-east Asia. Previously, the Taiwanese artist - who is known for his lively figurative sculptures - sold his works in Taiwan, the United States and Europe. His prices range from $50,000 to more than $3 million.  

In 2004, she staged an outdoor exhibition of Ju's sculptures that was spread over several venues, including the Singapore Art Museum (SAM), Wisma Atria and Changi Airport. For this, she was awarded the New Tourism Entrepreneur of the Year by the Singapore Tourism Board in 2005.  

As for Gao, she was recommended by his Taiwan gallery to help co-ordinate an exhibition of his Chinese ink wash paintings at SAM in 2007. She still sells his art at her gallery and the pieces are priced from $40,000 to $500,000.  

While most galleries had to deal with a dry spell during the 2008 financial crisis, she had to tackle a larger crisis: a high-profile legal wrangle with her former partner and boyfriend, Lim Chwee Tang.  

In 2009, he sued her for oppressing his rights as a minority shareholder and mismanaging iPreciation, of which both were directors and shareholders.  

The judge eventually ordered her to buy out Lim's share of the company, which she did.  

She has emerged from the affair “wiser,” she says. “I'm not bitter about what happened.”  

She says she has “very good lawyers now” and seeks their advice before committing to any business partnerships.  

Chan is not one to dwell on the past, however, and says she is eager to expand her business. She plans to stage two firsts: to represent her first European and Singapore artists.  

An exhibition of renowned French sculptor Bernar Venet, known for his massive, mathematical works, will be shown in the Marina Bay area next year. She is also signing on Singaporean painter Milenko Prvacki.  

Modestly, she says she does not consider herself successful. “There is so much for me to learn and improve. I'm just trying to do the best I can at the moment and I count my blessings so far.”

Reprinted courtesy of Straits Times Indonesia. To subscribe to Straits Times Indonesia and/or the Jakarta Globe call 021 2553 5055.