One of the most eye-catching aspects of the fair is the Hong Kong Tourism Board’s booth – a small exhibition titled “Hardworking Aesthetics”, apparently a nod to the city’s workaholic tendencies.

Look for Liv Tsim’s Energy Bar (2024), a portable science lab that resembles a hawker’s cart, from which she creates energy bars that have been stacked up on one side.

Before you are tempted to have one, note that the artist, who has just finished her MA in biodesign in London, made these using a process called bioleaching – leaving bacteria to extract metal ions from metal parts used in smartphones.

Next to it are OrangeTerry’s stacks of 30 school chairs and Olga Au’s soft sculptures that will bring a smile to your face.

“The Tourism Board sponsored the booth and gave our artistic director Enoch Cheng complete say on the content,” says Corey Andrew Barr, the fair’s director. The government’s Mega Arts and Cultural Events Fund also contributed to public programming this year, he says.

“Sports and martial arts are often thought of as the opposite of cultural activities such as reading a book. But as someone who is both an artist and a gym operator, I am curious about how my two identities tie together,” she says.

The fruit of one of Art Central’s many collaborations with Hong Kong institutions, A Sultry World is a performance artwork by Sunayama Norico, a Japanese artist known for straddling the boundaries between public and personal space.

Presented by Hong Kong’s Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile (Chat) in Tsuen Wan, it consists of a voluminous scarlet velvet dress which visitors are invited to touch and to crawl under.

From the outside, it is a strange sight that brings up the unpleasant thought of upskirting. But once inside, visitors will find themselves enclosed in an intimate, tranquil space infused with a lavender scent, and discover coloured pens and sketchbooks with which to express themselves as they enjoy the makeshift place of refuge.

United Overseas Bank, the fair’s regular sponsor, has commissioned a large work by Hong Kong ink artist Yau Wing-fung called Mountains Beyond (2024). Inside the installation are Yau’s ink paintings referencing Hong Kong’s many uninhabited islands.

Patches of light appear on the paintings when sensors detect the approach of visitors, symbolising the severity of light and other forms of environmental pollution.

As part of the fair’s performance programme, Cheng’s work Art-is-Here-Picnic (2024) invites fair visitors to sit down with arts practitioners, share snacks and chat about the impact art has on their lives.

Hong Kong dancer and choreographer Scarlet Yu rounds out the performance programme with Planting Tastes (2024), an interactive, multisensory performance involving chocolate that examines the role of food in shaping culture and society.

The selling part of the fair includes the booths of 98 art galleries, of which 70 per cent are from the Asia-Pacific region, just short of the pre-pandemic record of 107 exhibitors.

Kenneth Young, director of Karin Weber gallery in Hong Kong, said the fair preview on March 27 was better attended than in 2023.

Another Hong Kong gallery, 3812, which featured a booth solely of work by Hong Kong artist Thomas Ngan, sold a diptych for HK$205,000 (US$26,200) during the preview.

“This is our first time in Art Central, which is why we chose a young local artist to match the fair’s profile,” said a gallery representative.

Eleven galleries established less than five years ago have been selected to show in Art Central’s Neo section, and were given guidance from Cheng about how to present their artists’ works. Among them is Bangkok’s Warin Lab Contemporary, which is presenting art made from recycled materials by Jarupatcha Achavasmit.

Art Central 2024, Central Harbourfront, 9 Lung Wo Road, opening hours vary. March 28-31.