"Picture This: Recently Acquired Art" celebrated the strength and diversity of contemporary art practice in New Zealand, Hocken Collection pictorial collections curator Natalie Poland said.
"We thought it would be nice to have a contemporary show, because we've had lots of historical shows lately.
"The art on display spans the wide range of media being deployed by artists today, from sculpture and performance to installation, video, photography, as well as the conventional medium of paint.
"The contents of this show reveal several strands of the Hocken's art collection development policy."
Works by established New Zealand artists such as Billy Apple and Shane Cotton are displayed alongside works by younger artists who have only recently em-erged on the national art scene.
The exhibition, which runs until November 10, would also give an insight into how the collection was being developed, Ms Poland said.
Included in the exhibition were works by former University of Otago Frances Hodgkins Fellows, which was a focus of the Hocken's art collection policy, she said.
Past fellows represented include Heather Straka (2008), Eddie Clemens (2009), Joanna Langford (2010), Kushana Bush (2011) and Nick Austin (2012).
