An example of this is Erotic Couch by Philip Clairmont, painted in the 1970s, a time defined by sexual revolution and political protest.
Clairmont and fellow creatives were living in rundown flats with furniture that was, as Dunningham put it, more like ''20th-hand'' than second-hand.
He recalled the exhilarating dynamism of those flats, where people congregated to debate art, poetry, politics and more.
On a rough piece of hessian, Clairmont's painting encapsulates all this with a couch that seems dangerously alive, writhing with curves and zigzags, acidic colours and what could be teeth brushing the floor. It's hungry, just as that generation was at that time.
I wholeheartedly agree with Dunningham these are the kinds of works MTG should focus on — not just for our collection but for our exhibition programme, too.
We provide a platform for social dialogue and the kind of contemporary art I find most exciting is that which jumps right into the debate of widely relevant themes.
Our current show by Yuki Kihara exemplifies that, as it takes a critical look at the forces of colonialism and globalised capitalism, which together have shaped our realities today.
We are also developing upcoming projects with artists that will continue to add to current discourse: one responding to the challenge of plastic proliferation in our oceans, and another inspired by effective solutions leading the way in countering crises in housing as well as soil and waterway degradation.
These come at a time when the crew of the waka Te Matau a Māui is conducting New Zealand's first ocean plastic trawl, sailing between here and the Chatham Islands to collect data on microplastics; when Te Taiwhenua o Heretaunga is gearing up to build hundreds of houses to form New Zealand's first indigenous co-housing development, which will see many whānau shift from precarious housing into a stable home ownership situation; and when Ngāti Kahungunu Inc are partnering with the Hawke's Bay Regional Council to launch the Kahutia Accord, to cloak the region in hundreds of millions of trees.
It's another dynamic juncture and, as always, the arts have an integral part to play.
*Jess Mio is curator of art at the Museum Theatre Gallery (MTG) Hawke's Bay.