Rocket Gallery    founded 1994

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The world of Rocket is one that its founder Jonathan Stephenson has nurtured for over two decades. Stephenson’s vision has spawned a ‘laboratory’ for exploring the crossover of the worlds of art, photography, design and, more recently, fashion. He is a true independent...     Max Fraser, London Design Guide

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Established in 1994 Rocket Gallery first occupied a former tailor’s showroom on Old Burlington Street in the West End of London with a large Mayfair shopfront. In 2003 the Gallery relocated to a converted warehouse space on the ground floor of the Tea Building on Shoreditch High Street in the East End of London – an area undergoing a rapid gentrification.

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In August 2013 Jonathan Stephenson acquired the 999 year lease on a 4,000 square foot shell unit in the Broadway Market area of Hackney. He embarked on an architectural adventure to design and convert the raw space into a permanent home for Rocket and all facets of the creative business.

 

After a gruelling eighteen months of construction work the Gallery entered a new phase in April 2015,

re-opening with a group show entitled Finished/Applied –  featuring paintings, sculpture & photographs by Martin Parr, Michelle Grabner, Ditty Ketting, Lars Wolter, Charles Hill and Peter Hedegaard – juxtaposed with applied art by the fashion designer Jonathan Saunders and the German painter Imi Knoebel.

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The opening of the new Rocket premises was the subject of an article, ‘Rocket man’, published by Wallpaper*