According to ArtForum there will be nearly sixty international art fairs taking place in 2014. And there must be hundreds of other fairs around the world too. They are everywhere, and whilst not a new phenomenon their numbers have increased inexorably since the end of the 1990s.
The art world has become increasingly globalised during this period. There is more money; there are more artists, more curators, and more collectors, more everything. Art has become a commodity. It is spectacular and popular and highly marketable. And, in order to compete for the attention of ever-wider audiences, galleries have to think global too, in order to increase their reach beyond their own doors.