Near the entrance to Sydney Contemporary, art lovers can walk through a glowing blue neon archway by artist Darren Sylvester.
Titled Transformer, it reflects the human impulse to wonder about other dimensions - and perhaps it's also a portal to the otherworldly realms of contemporary art.
With the most expensive work on show - by the late Emily Kame Kngwarreye - priced at $3.35 million, the annual fair at Carriageworks is an exercise in optimism amid the uncertainty affecting the art market internationally.
Global sales have not been what they were, according to Sydney Contemporary founder Tim Etchells, but one side effect has been a lift in the quality of art available.
"I think the standard of art is much higher, and I think collectors will be very tempted to buy," Etchells said.
As the fair opened to the public on Thursday, it seemed he might have a point, with large-scale monochromatic paintings by Djakangu Yunupingu at Alcaston Gallery already bearing red dots.
At the Sabbia Gallery booth, every work by ceramicist Alfred Lowe, winner of the 2024 MA Art Prize for emerging artists, had found a buyer, while glass sculptures by Liam Fleming were also quickly snapped up.
Redfern-based Sabbia is one of 85 galleries - 37 from interstate or overseas - representing more than 400 artists at the event.
For Perth nonprofit Art Collective WA, which is showing five artists including Merrick Belyea's oil-on-aluminium landscapes and Antony Muia's fantastical watercolours, Sydney Contemporary is a big undertaking but the exposure is vital.
"It's very important for our artists who don't get a lot of opportunity to get in front of curators - this is really the only way," director Felicity Johnston told AAP.
Some have travelled even further for Australia's biggest art fair, which hopes to generate about $20 million in sales.
Melbourne artist and animator Daniel Agdag has just returned from showing his work in Venice, with his feats of architectural whimsy on show at the MARS gallery booth in Sydney.
Made from recycled box board and pattern paper and held together with PVA glue, each takes eight to 10 weeks to construct.
Incredibly, Agdag builds these intricate artworks without a plan in a process he likens to drawing - even if one is almost finished, he's prepared to start all over again if it's not progressing as he would like.
Some of the most surprising works at the fair were three-dimensional - at the Redbase booth, Indonesian artist Joko Avianto's bamboo and oak sculpture Struggle in The Crease looked like flooring melting from the wall.
At Auckland's Gow Langsford, New Zealander David McCracken's massive $115,000 corten steel sculpture made heavy metal seem like it could roll away while Virginia Leonard crammed a seemingly impossible amount of adornment onto the high gloss surfaces of her latest ceramic vessels.
Having stepped through the portal, the laws of physics - and economics - might no longer apply.
Sydney Contemporary runs until Sunday.
AAP travelled with the assistance of organisers.
