TO judge by the works selected for this show, Wesfarmers employees must look forward to going in to work each day. Normally hung in their various offices, the collection of artworks began in 1977 when then general manager John Bennison acquired a pastoral scene by Elioth Gruner.

This was an unsurprising choice for a company focused on agriculture, but with the diversification of their interests his successors have expanded the collection and brought in works that, in the words of incumbent chief executive Richard Goyder, "accentuate the value of art in the workplace and encourage an understanding of the importance to society of supporting creative thinking and artistic vision".

To consolidate that commitment to that wider social remit, the company has organised the present exhibition and collaborated with Fremantle Press to publish a book that illustrates these paintings alongside poems by John Kinsella. "My work in this project is not an affirmation of capitalism," Kinsella says in his introduction, "but an echo of a commitment to community and open conversation."

Obviously the company has no such qualms either, and operates as one would expect from a large corporation. Recently it sold a group of works that duplicated other works in the collection or no longer reflected its brief, and the profit from that sale has been set aside to fund future expansion of the collection. The company also has initiated regular talks at its head office in Perth, where artists are invited to talk to staff about their work. But while the collection is said to provide social benefits, the company is aware it holds a valuable financial asset that requires judicious management.

Its commitment to open conversation remains an abiding principle, and the present show follows an earlier exhibition, The Song of the Lamb, also held at Art Gallery of Western Australia, in 1989. While that show featured historical works in the collection, for this show curator Helen Carroll has selected contemporary works under the heading of Luminous World. "Light is the primary phenomenon through which we experience the surroundings of the earth," she says. This gives her ample scope to include good works from the collection, and there are plenty of those.

While pushing the idea of luminosity too far won't always provide clarification, it is fundamental to our appreciation of one of the standout works on show.

Howard Taylor's Bushfire Sun crackles with blistering heat as it pulsates slowly on the wall. Through technical mastery, the artist has created a sense of illumination that radiates through the gallery.

Another work that must brighten the Wesfarmers offices is Carol Rudyard's Continuum, which cleverly creates an endless cycle of oscillating, pulsating energy through a careful selection of colours within a single tonal range. An example of 1970s hard-edge abstraction, it looks as fresh and vibrant as the day it was painted. At the other end of the lux scale, Paul Uhlmann's large black triptych Pulse is brought to life by the slightest light-leak emanating like some ghostly apparition from the top left corner.