For those of you who love contemporary art, the place to be this weekend is New York City’s extensive annual Art Fairs. Yesterday, I headed down to Chelsea’s Waterfront to first check out the Bridge Art Fair (The Waterfront; 222 12th Ave. & 269 11th Ave.), known for stellar shows of emerging contemporary art in London, Chicago, and Miami.

Marking the transition of Bridge from a national to an international art fair, this year’s spotlight is on never-before-seen contemporary work from Asia. Invited galleries are participating from Taipei, Singapore, Shanghai, Tokyo and elsewhere across the Pacific Rim.

One of the best showings was the Ark Galerie from Jakarta, Indonesia, which brought a brilliant installation by young Indonesian artist, Eko Nugroho (see image below). The Yogyakarta-based, politically savvy artist is known for his humorous visual commentaries on the socio-political tip and is at the forefront of a new generation of rebellious Indonesian artists who mark the departure from the gloomy, violent aesthetics that characterized the arts during the tumultuous 1980s and 90s in Indonesia.

Blending classic Chinese painting techniques with a 21st-century pop aesthetic, the works of Taiwan’s leading artist, J. C Kuo (Asian Art Center; Taiwan) were also remarkable. Given the focus on Asia, two pieces of Warhol’s Mao series were also on display. Sweet.

After feasting on the eye candies at the Bridge Art Fair, I also checked out the LA Art in New York fair (125 & 135 W. 18th St.). Here, I would highly recommend the collection of Roberts & Tilton and the Mary Goldman Gallery for an edgier, more daring collection of multimedia works. The Roberts & Tilton gallery featured, among others, a lovely piece by legendary street-artist Barry McGee, as well as representative work from LA’s thriving pop surrealist scene.

The exhibitions will run from March 27, 2008 through March 30, 2008.