DEPOT 3 Vic Road is a vibrant and multi-faceted art and cultural space situated in the heart of Devonport.
Formerly the Devonport Council Borough chambers, this historic building is now home to the DEPOT Shop | Toi Toa, gallery and retail shop – hosting exhibitions and selling handmade artisan objects – as well as hosting workshops and events alongside the DEPOT Ceramics Studio and 10 artists’ studios upstairs as part of Studio D3.
This iconic building is a flagship creative space within Devonport and is open from 10am-5pm daily.
The DEPOT Shop | Toi Toa is proud to support local artists and artists from across Aotearoa. We stock handcrafted items including ceramics, cards, jewellery, prints, glassware, Toi Māori, homewares, art and art publications.
Summer Opening Hours:
10am–5pm Daily
Opening Hours:
Tuesday–Sunday: 10am–4pm
Monday: Closed
Click below for more info on our Shop artists and to view the collection.
DEPOT Shop | Toi Toa
The DEPOT Ceramics Studio is the perfect experience for groups, birthday parties, school holidays, after school hangs, or just some solo creative time. You do the painting, and we do the firing and glazing!
Summer Opening Hours:
10am–5pm Daily
Opening Hours:
Tuesday–Sunday: 10am–4pm
Monday: Closed
Click below for more info on the DEPOT Ceramics Studio and to book your session today!
DEPOT Ceramics Studio
Studio D3 was founded in 2024 to create, foster, and preserve affordable and sustainable studio spaces for artists.
Our members actively contribute to Devonport’s creative economy, enriching the cultural and social fabric of our community. All member artists enjoy 24/7 access to the studios, utilities, Wi-Fi, and a shared community area.
Members are required to sign an annual membership agreement, participate in Open Studios, and volunteer time to support Studio D3’s operations.
For artists interested in joining Studio D3, please contact us here.
Studio D3 Artists
Alison Gilmour
Alison was born in Auckland, New Zealand near Narrow Neck Beach – a picturesque seaside locale that fostered her love of the ocean and often acts as inspiration for her art. Alison’s art captures the timelessness of nuanced and textured beauty of the world around her. With delicate brushwork and bold colours, she creates timeless art in photo-realistic quality. She paints paradise as she sees it, filling the absence of civilisation with the fullness of nature. The way light plays on pristine water, foliage and sand draws her creative spirit. Paint to canvas, canvas to evocative memories, her heart on display. Alison’s painting journey started in 2001 with her first acrylic painting. She then went on to be represented by Palette, The Letham, Matakana and Exhibitions Galleries with sell out shows before changing to oil as a medium at The Tim Wilson Gallery where she was mentored by Tim Wilson, one of New Zealand’s most acclaimed landscape artists. Through working with Tim and exhibiting in his exclusive gallery, Alison has increased her global profile, increased the value to her already very successful paintings and continues to learn about her craft and life. Alison has also been published in seven books and two magazines in New Zealand and the US. Beyond her painting and mixed media art, Alison is a qualified graphic designer having worked in advertising and design for many years.
@alisongilmour_artist
Celia Walker
Celia Walker is an Auckland-based print artist whose practice revolves around walking as an art form. Walker uses her walks as a method of engaging with her environment, often creating prints that explore urban ecology, mapping, and the intersection of landscape and history. Her works combine a variety of printmaking techniques, such as monoprint, collagraph, and drypoint, to create textured, tonal pieces that reflect her deep connection to the materiality of place. With a strong focus on environmental issues, Walker’s work also critiques climate change and raises awareness through art.
Fiona Mackay
Fiona Mackay is a ceramic artist based in Te Hau Kapua (Devonport). With a background in creative industries including furniture design, fashion, and styling, she has always been drawn to simple, clean forms. Applying this love of design to objects made from clay allows the expression of shape and form, in a craft that creates unique hand-made objects, no two of which will ever be the same.
Janet Mazenier
Janet Mazenier is a Te Hau Kapua (Devonport) painter made in Ireland and born in Aotearoa. Her work speaks to the spirit of places that she explores, their genius loci. Currently in the final year of PhD candidature (Creative Practice) at AUT University she is actively researching her ancestral home of Ireland by undertaking multiple residencies. Recently a finalist in the Waikato Painting and Printmaking Awards 2025, in 2024 her work Mudflats won the main Painting Award. Janet holds a BFA and MFA from Elam School of Fine Arts at the University of Auckland and was awarded a scholarship to undertake her PhD in Creative Practice at AUT University. “My abstract art practice explores themes of place, time, affect, world bending and materiality. My drawn paintings feature richly textured, excavated surfaces that speak to ancientness, the unseen, and the ephemeral. With diasporic Irish heritage, my research considers what it means to be a contemporary artist living and working in Aotearoa New Zealand, using my art practice as a lens to explore memory and place and how painting can connect me to these elements.”
Karen Rubado
Karen Rubado is a Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland) artist, who graduated with a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Auckland’s Elam School of Fine Arts in 2017. Recent exhibitions include detours and daydreams at RM Gallery and Project Space, 2023; Suburbia, Iteration 22 with the mothermother collective at Northart, 2023; soft ware at Melanie Roger Gallery, 2021; 1924 at Corban Estate, 2021 and under intense scrutiny at Te Tuhi, 2020. Karen’s practice delves into themes of identity and memory through an introspective artistic practice. Working primarily with hand weaving techniques, Karen’s practice is methodical and meditative, traversing between mind wandering and concentration. Repetition in her work is often interrupted by uncontrolled events, resulting in intriguing imperfections that highlight moments of transformation amidst well-choreographed intersections. These imperfections serve as a reflection of disrupted expectations, adding depth to her exploration of the psychological landscapes of the self and the tenuous connection between physical spaces and notions of belonging.
Rose Evans
Rose Evans (Te Atiawa, French and Welsh) works as a Museum Object Conservator and Exhibition Developer. Having spent 15 years at Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa specialising in Māori, Pacific and contemporary sculpture, Rose then worked with the British Museum, Torpedo Bay Navy Museum and Auckland Museum. In 2012 Rose established Objectlab, a heritage consultancy providing both object conservation, museum development and exhibition services to the heritage and wider cultural sector. To complement her skills with cultural objects, Rose studied jewellry at Hungry Creek, continuing to make at Workshop6 before joining Studio D3 in 2024. She mainly works in silver and has an interest in strong geometric shapes and hollow forms.
Rose is a resident artist in Studio D3, here at DEPOT Toi Toa.
Steve Bolton
Steve Bolton is a Devonport based artist, cartoonist and writer. He is a contributing cartoonist to The New Zealand Listener and has had work published with Stuff, The Sunday Times, The Guardian, Media Week, Good Housekeeping and many more. He is also the author of Noonaville I, Noonaville II, and Parcels from Home: Jack’s War. As a painter and printmaker working in oil, acrylic, watercolor and ink, as well as digital. Steve’s work often features elements more common in the world of cartooning and commercial art; with movement, humor and narrative flow all recurring themes. His work covers a wide range of human experience. From private and mundane moments to memories, dreams, fantasies and imagines scenarios and scenes.
Steve is a resident artist in Studio D3, here at DEPOT Toi Toa.
