An art auction featuring paintings by prisoners of Kerobokan prison in Bali has been shut down because a flyer said it was dedicated to the Bali nine painter on death row, Myuran Sukumaran.

The auction and exhibition titled "New Lives Through Art" was to have been held at the Hard Rock Hotel in Kuta on Friday to raise money for an art studio for ex-prisoners.

However the event was shut down just hours before it was due to start on Friday night.

Kerobokan prison governor Sudjonggo said it was cancelled because the exhibition flyer mentioned Sukumaran in breach of an agreement with organisers.

"The agreement was not to mention any particular person, just that it would be paintings by prisoners," Mr Sudjonggo said.

The exhibition, which was to have featured more than 90 artworks by Sukumaran and other inmates, was heavily publicised in the Australian media.

Sukumaran's brother, Chinthu, was slated to attend the exhibition as were prison guards and former prisoners whose lives had been transformed by the vocational programs instigated by Sukumaran at the jail.

"With sadness due to unforseen circumstances, the Kerobokan Prison Artists program Auction @Hard Rock tonight has been shutdown," organisers said in a text message.

"This is devastating to the group that have worked so hard to make this happen. Please be respectful and do not post any comments to this post. We will get back to you when we are able. We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience we have caused for anyone planning to attend this event. we thank you for your support."

Tina Bailey, who teaches art and dance at Kerobokan prison, said Sukumaran had not been named in the official invitation or poster.

However a flyer, the source of which is unknown, said the exhibition was dedicated to Sukumaran.

"It's very very unfortunate," Ms Bailey said. She said no-one knew who produced the flyer that caused offence.

"No-one in the organising committee breached any agreement," Ms Bailey said.

She said the event had been cancelled without consulting the organising committee.

Chinthu Sukumaran said he was sad the auction was cancelled but respected the Indonesian authorities decision.

"It was Myu's hope that the money raised would go towards the creation of an art studio outside the prison for ex-inmates to learn, to paint and to have a place they could go," he said. "The studio would be to help them integrate back into the community."

One of the artworks by Sukumaran to have featured in the exhibition was a portrait of Indonesian president Joko Widodo titled "People can change".

It was Sukumaran's first painting after weeks of crippling depression following the news that the president had rejected his clemency plea.

In the poignant Sukumaran portrait, the president looks into the middle distance, his expressionless face and the slight downturn of the mouth indicative of the lack of mercy he showed the painter.

One of the show's organisers, Norwegian academic Oivind Zahlsen, seemed baffled as to why it had been shut down.

"We don't know why yet, we are still trying to find out the details," he said.

Mr Zahlsen, who teaches computer science in the prison, said a team from Norway organised an exhibition of prisoners' paintings twice a year.

"This year we asked to go a little bit more public. It was cancelled ... I can't really say anything."

Meanwhile, Indonesia's attorney general HM Prasetyo said there would be an "assimilation process" for death row inmates before they faced the firing squad.

It involves "mentally.preparing the death convicts who are facing the.execution."

"There will be spiritual people so the [convicts] will be truly ready facing the execution," he said.

He said the plan remained for all 10 of those slated for execution to be killed at once, although it was possible that plan would change.

"We will do it simultaneously. When everything is ready, we will do it simultaneously," he said.

He said it wasn't within his authority to determine when the executions would take place, and that legal processes would have to be allowed to run their course.

"We respect the ongoing legal process. We don't want to be seen as ignoring the ongoing legal process," he said.

"It is not possible" that the executions could be cancelled, he added.