The modern art collection of the CPPC consists primarily of geometric abstraction by 20th-century artists from Latin America, with particular depth in Constructive Universalism, Inventionism, Arte Madí, Concrete art, Neo-Concrete art and Kinetic art. The collection also includes works by some European and North American artists whose production was in dialogue with artists of the region.

In addition to this cohesive and comprehensive presentation of mid-century geometric abstraction, the CPPC’s modern art collection also features the work of figurative artists who were important in the development of modern art, including Armando Reverón, Xul Solar, Wifredo Lam, and Francisco Narváez, among others.

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The contemporary art collection has developed alongside the CPPC's other four areas of collecting focus, and in many cases the growth of the contemporary collection is in active dialogue with these collections. The artists are primarily from Latin America and the Caribbean, and represent a wide range of mediums including performance, installation, video, painting, and sculpture. The collection also includes works by artists from other parts of the world who have engaged with Latin America, reflecting the global nature of contemporary art production.

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The genesis of CPPC's collection of art and objects from the colonial period is framed by artworks from Venezuela's Hispanic and early Republican periods. Over time, the collection has grown to include paintings and sculptures; objects—including silverware and furniture—as well as devotional artifacts from the early seventeenth to the mid-nineteenth centuries.

Primarily crafted by artisans in Spanish and Portuguese America, these objects reflect the transatlantic network of contemporary societies through their iconographies, styles, methods of production, and circulation. The collection also exemplifies the social structures that emerged on local levels, particularly the various ways in which devotional and secular objects were displayed and used in religious and domestic settings.

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Created and maintained with an educational mission that honors the wealth of the region's material production, the CPPC preserves and manages the Orinoco Collection, a group of cultural artifacts from twelve ethnic communities from the Orinoco River basin: the De’áruwa (Piaroa), Ye’kuana, Yanomami, Híwi (Guahibo), E’ñepa (Panare), Wakuénai (Curripaco), Baniva, Baré, Puinave, Warekena, Tsase (Píapoco) and Hoti.

The collection includes baskets, body ornaments, musical instruments, ritual objects, weapons, utilitarian objects, as well as archival documentation.

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Spanning from the 17th to the 19th centuries, the paintings, drawings, watercolors, photographs, maps, books and archival documents that make up the Traveler Artists collection trace the depiction of the landscape of Latin America by artists from Europe and the United States. This collection offers an historical account of the genesis of this genre, beginning with the arrival of the Dutch painter Frans Post to Brazil in 1637, and continuing with journeys by chroniclers, scientists, entrepreneurs, and artists including Lydia Byam (c. 1800), Frederic Edwin Church (1826–1900), Marc Ferrez (1843–1923), Maria Graham (1785–1842), Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859), Camille Pissarro (1830–1903), and José María Velasco (1840–1912). These depictions of the Americas range from romanticized scenes based on Western conventions to directly observed illustrations of travel and expeditions, and include scientific studies of fauna and flora as well as historical records.

This collection also includes a substantial body of work by French artist and draughtsman Auguste Morisot (1857–1951) created during the 1886 expedition of anthropologist and explorer Jean Chaffanjon (1857–1951), whose goal was to be the first to reach the sources of the Orinoco River. Morisot’s field paintings, drawings, photographs, fumée noire prints, and detailed travel journal capture the region's biological and ecological diversity, as well as the customs of its inhabitants.

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