Mr Maisano said he decided to use the available office space to promote art commerce and to encourage local artists after reading an article in the South China Morning Post last year about the lack of space to display art in Hong Kong.

'This is making a commercial statement that art and commerce can live together,' he said.

The art is for sale and will be on display until July.

Mr Maisano, who minored in art history at university, said he did not have a favourite of his own among the exhibited pieces.

'I'm only providing the space for them,' he said. 'I don't want to be critical and I want to let the artists speak.'

Pamela Kember, curator of the exhibition and a board member of the Asia Art Archive, said the exhibition was quite unusual and she felt fortunate to see artists emerging.

'I would describe this exhibition as a chamber of discovery,' she said.

Ms Kember said more offices and workplaces should display art and she wanted to see more art pieces in public places.

Two of the artists, Movana Chen Li-yun and Simone Boon, said this was the first time they had exhibited in a workplace.

Ms Chen, a former student of Ms Kember, selected three artworks to display - a vase and two dresses made from shredded magazines.

'I took magazines in different languages from different places, laminated them, put them in the paper shredder and knitted them.'

Ms Boon, another student of Ms Kember's, is exhibiting her alternative photographs - images she treats with a paintbrush in a process she calls mimesis.

Members of the public interested in seeing and buying the works must first make an appointment.