Established Shoreditch Gallery Threatened With Closure

Will Noble
By Will Noble Last edited 122 months ago

Last Updated 31 October 2014

Established Shoreditch Gallery Threatened With Closure

Kemistry2

Kemistry Gallery — a leading UK exhibition space for cutting-edge graphic design — is being threatened with closure, after an announcement of the impending redevelopment of its current home on Charlotte Road, Shoreditch.

Gallery spokesman Philip Abraham told Londonist:

"Unfortunately news of the redevelopment came quite suddenly this summer and it wasn't possible to find a permanent new home straight away. But [creative director] Graham McCallum and [Kemistry’s head of production] Ricky Churchill decided that it would be better to wait and find the right home for Kemistry, and to re-establish it as an even bigger contribution to London's cultural scene and design community."

So Kemistry is not giving up hope altogether, and while it hunts for a new permanent venue, the gallery plans to host a pop-up exhibition in February 2015 — Kemistry Gallery: 10 years 60 works. The planned pop-up is two-pronged — a celebration of 10 years in business, and a pilot for the next phase of Kemistry Gallery’s existence. It will feature work from some of the finest young designers and classic masters who have shown at the gallery since its inaugural exhibition in September 2004.

To make this all happen, a £15,000 Kickstarter campaign has been launched. Arts Council England, meanwhile, has already put its own £15k into the pot, and this money will go towards the costs of a feasibility study for "transforming Kemistry Gallery into the UK’s first not-for-profit gallery space dedicated to celebrating the best in graphic design and visual communication".

For 10 years Kemistry has been a proponent of emerging graphic talents, including Parra, UVA, Ben Eine and Yoni Alter, as well as established names like Saul Bass, Ken Garland and Milton Glaser.

It's not clear exactly what the redevelopment plans for the current gallery are but it's likely it will become some form of A1 retail space, i.e., a shop.