EVERY YEAR IN EARLY MARCH, AS THE FIRST HINT OF SPRING IS IN THE AIR, THOUSANDS of artists, dealers, collectors, gallery professionals and art students descend upon New York City to celebrate what has come to be known as the 'Art Fair Season'. In 2008, there were 10 Art Fairs that concentrated on contemporary art, ranging from the well-known Armory Show to newcomers like DiVA (Digital and Video Art Fair) and novelties like The Dark Art Fair, a miniature art fair which took place without the use of natural or electric light. In the midst of this frenetic season of auctions, lectures and after-parties, a small number of Indian artworks made brave forays into the mainstream New York art world.

Christie's staff taking phone bids. IMAGE COURTESY OF CHRISTIE'S.

Indian art is visible in New York both in galleries that are dedicated to promoting it (like Bose Pacia Gallery, Aicon Gallery and Bodhi Art) as well as in the small number of European and American art galleries that have taken on better known Indian artists, such as Subodh Gupta. Consequently, art from the Indian subcontinent is increasingly cited in discussions of contemporary art.

Much of this has to do with the fact that the New York art world is becoming less inward-looking. In the past one year, major institutions have opened their doors to art from all over the world. The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) held a large exhibition of Latin American artists called New Perspectives in Latin American Art, 1930-2006: Selections from a Decade of Acquisitions from November 2007 to February 2008, and the Brooklyn Museum presented New York audiences with Infinite Island: Contemporary Caribbean Art, a group show of 45 artists in early 2008. And evidence shows that viewers have asked for more such displays.

This has also been an exciting season for Asian art in New York. The Guggenheim Museum's retrospective of the work of the contemporary Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang drew a groundbreaking number of visitors (5,000 per day, according to the Museum's Senior Curator of Asian art, Alexandra Munroe). The show came close on the heels of a retrospective of Zhang Huan at the Asia Society Museum last fall, and a show of Yue Minjun's works at the Queens Museum. These exhibitions have ensured that contemporary Chinese art has a formidable presence in New York, assisted by the fact that it is regularly in the news for the record-breaking prices it fetches at auctions. Contemporary Japanese art was also very visible this year - from the 5th of April to the 13th of July, the Brooklyn Museum showcased work by the Tokyo-based pop artist Takashi Murakami, whose blend of fashion, music and art attracted high-profile visitors like Marc Jacobs and Julian Schnabel. Also in March, Bombay-born Jaishri Abichandani's show at the Queens Museum of Art, Reconciliations, drew upon the immigrant experience in the diasporically rich community of Queens, purportedly home to speakers of as many as 138 languages.