Rory Palmer 25

Rory Palmer, a truly free and original young spirit in the Cape’s art world, left the scene suddenly and tragically on 13th August in Copenhagen.
He fell from a rooftop while watching a meteor shower with some friends. He was 25 years old.

He was based in London at the time of his death and was visiting Denmark.Rory himself made a meteor like appearance on the Cape Town gallery scene with his startling and short-lived “Dirt Contemporary” gallery which he opend in Kloof Street in 2006 with his girlfriend Elodie.

Dirt Contemporary Gallery was known and appreciated by many artists for its unqualified support of emerging talent, regardless of whether or not it was a commercial prospect. The pair were evicted by the landlord after a few months and Rory then left South Africa to continue his art studies in Europe.

He had studied art and design at school and Fine Art for two years at Rhodes University, where his father was professor of the Anthopology Deaprtment. His mother Anne Pope works at the Private Law faculty at UCT and said of Rory:

“Rory saw the world differently and his gallery project forced the art world to reflect on its ways, even if this made things uncomfortable for them. Regarding his own work, he was severely self-critical, often unfairly - always seeking to be perfect but also to provoke”

The first exhibition held at the gallery was for photographer Jan Verboom of Roodebloem Photographic Studio. Jan remembers:

“Rory was much younger than me and I loved the ego-driven enthusiasm he put into launching the gallery, decorating the place and making it look really good. It had been a shop and he painted it all white and with the afternoon sun shining through the windows it made a great space for my show. I sold a few pics and he was very pleased with that ! It was important to him that I do well and I found that generous and touching”