Art galleries in Prince Albert.

Prince Albert has drawn painters, potters and photographers for a long time. The reasons are not hard to see: hard, clear light; a mountain that changes colour through the day; space and time that are hard to find in a city. Many of the people who show work in town also live and make it here.

That changes what a gallery visit is like. In Prince Albert you are often looking at work in the place it was made, and you can usually talk to the person who made it.

PALET. is a contemporary gallery in a house at 3 Bank Street. The rooms are hung with paintings by François Potgieter and set with stoneware by Lauren Scott. There is no front desk and no hush; walk through at your own pace and ask questions when you want to.

Every work is signed and dated and comes with a certificate of provenance. Prices are given on request. We crate and ship work, within South Africa and internationally.

François works in acrylic and acrylic ink. His paintings take the Karoo apart and put it back together in planes: a koppie becomes a wall, a street becomes a stair, a figure is caught between two places. Folded rock from the Swartberg and the houses of the town both turn up, often in the same picture.

Lauren hand-builds stoneware vessels under the name skepstof. Each piece is coiled and pinched over days and fired long. Her forms come from two places she knows well, the coast at Stilbaai and the dry ground of Prince Albert.

If our opening hours don't suit your trip, book a private viewing. Tell us when you are in town and what you are interested in, and one of us will open the house for you. Collectors are welcome to ask for a selection of work to be set aside before they arrive.

Prince Albert is easy to walk, and most of what you will want to see is within a few streets. Start with the galleries and studios in the morning, stop for lunch in town, and finish on Bank Street, where the gelato is made in the same house as the gallery.