Six years after opening on Ponsonby Road, Public Record has moved to a new gallery on Great North Road.

Founded by Yuka O’Shannessy, who was born in Tokyo and trained in fashion at AUT, Public Record began as a gallery and store with a programme weighted towards craft, design and fine art from Aotearoa and Japan. In its Ponsonby years it presented more than one hundred exhibitions and events with over eighty artists and makers.

Public Record appeared off-site in 2025 at Silo 6 in Wynyard Quarter, an immersive installation of new work by eight artists staged alongside Aotearoa Art Fair, with a live performance, Hau, in the programme. O’Shannessy has since guest-curated Ma 間 for The Arts House Trust, an exhibition built around pause and interval. The new address allows O’Shannessy to extend her programming on-site, allowing for more project-based presentations and immersive exhibitions.

The inaugural exhibition is Ōtautahi-based artist Carmel Pollock’s first solo presentation with the gallery, with new work by Kara Burrowes and Peter Derksen shown alongside. Support for the opening came from Hunter’s, Almighty and Dulux.

The building has a history of exhibition-making (Hopkinson Mossman and Trish Clark both operated from the space previously). Two Rooms and Fox Jensen are located on Putiki Street behind, and the stretch is minutes from the Karangahape Road art precinct.