Te Papa's new $8.4 million art gallery, Toi Art, which is part of the museum's biggest revamp in 20 years, will be open to the public from Saturday.

Toi Art opens at Te Papa. Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King Artist Ani O’Neil leads Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern into the Toi Art at Te Papa. Photo: Kate Whitley / Te Papa. Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King Artwork by Lisa Walker. Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King Pacific Sisters at Toi Art. Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King Artwork by Richard Kileen. Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King Nga tai whakarongorua Encounters. Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King Ano he Kopere Kaleidoscope. Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King Mikala Dwyer, Ahitereiria Wall necklace. Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King Tiffany Singh Total internal reflection. Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King A girl plays in the interactive art studio in Toi Art at Te Papa. Photo: Kate Whitley / Te Papa. Te Papa's head of art Charlotte Davy. Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King Te Papa head of art Charlotte Davy and its chief executive Geraint Martin. Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King Lisa Walker has an exhibition on the first floor called 'I want to go to my bedroom but I can't be bothered'. Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King Co-curator Rebecca Rice. Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King

Toi Art is equivalent in size to 15 tennis courts. The two storey gallery has been in the works for over two years and gives the museum 35 percent more space for art.

It features work from prominent New Zealand artists including C.F. Goldie, Rita Angus and Ralph Hotere, as well as more contemporary work from Janet Lilo, Tiffany Singh and Ngataihauru Taepa.

The new gallery is part of Te Papa's major overhaul of all of their exhibition spaces.

Students from Clifton Terrace Model School had promising first impressions.

"It's quite cool that we're like one of the first people in the world to ever see this - it's quite different to what I expected it would be, cause there's a lot of broken things turned into different things," one student said.

"I thought it was really wild - my favourite part was when I saw all the amazing costumes," another said.

Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King

Lisa Walker's 'I want to go to my bedroom but I can't be bothered' is one of the exhibitions on the first floor.

It features 30-years worth of Ms Walker's work - jewellery made of unconventional material such as rubbish from a workshop floor.

Ms Walker described 'Carl's off-cuts' - a necklace made from her husband's aluminium off-cuts.

"Those bits of aluminium came into my workshop - it probably took a couple of months for me to look at them and think about how to make something out of them and then just drilling holes and using a very simple loop to thread everything together, and then with a silver chain I made as well."

At the top of the gallery's staircase, a bright cherry-red wall is adorned with over 30 historical New Zealand portraits, as part of the Turangawaewae exhibition.

Facing each other across the space are a portrait of an unidentified Māori girl and a putatara, a conch shell, last used at the opening of the museum 20 years ago.

Photo: RNZ / Rebekah Parsons-King

Co-curator Rebecca Rice spoke about the portrait painted by German artist Wilhelm Dittmer in 1906.

"She's got this incredibly fiesty, striking profile view that encourages visitors to look back along the wall and think about what they've looked at.

"That's why we decided to place her there, to encourage looking again and thinking about our histories and how they're represented," she said.

The National Art collection, which is held by Te Papa, boasts 40,000 pieces, but the small number that could be publicly displayed at any one time over the years has caused angst among art-lovers.

Te Papa's head of art Charlotte Davy was unable to say how many pieces from the collection were on display in the new gallery - but said they hoped to display more in the future.

"The opening exhibitions, that we're starting this weekend, will change again in July and again at the end of the year.

"So we're really focused on getting the collection out more often through a regular programme of exhibitions and also throughout our other digital channels", she said.

The gallery was officially opened by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern this evening and will be open to the public from Saturday.