A FRUSTRATED ARTIST

PAINTER ROBERT MANISCALCO IS CLOSING HIS GROSSE POINTE GALLERY IN HOPES THAT A MOVE TO SOUTH CAROLINA WILL BRING HIM GREATER SUCCESS
By ERIN CHAN FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
PubDate: Thursday, 5/19/2005

If someone were to paint a portrait of Robert Maniscalco as realistic as the ones he creates, it would be one frenetic work of art.

The portrait would not only show Maniscalco as host of a Detroit television show on the arts, it would present him as an expressive painter, a novelist and an outspoken gallery owner. It might even show the doting husband and father who professes a love for changing his son's dirty diapers.

Then there would be Robert Maniscalco, the man with one foot stepping out of metro Detroit.

On Friday, Maniscalco will close his gallery in Grosse Pointe and, with his wife, Amanda, and 15-month-oldson, Danny, move to Charleston, S.C., where he can concentrate on portraiture. It is, he says, what he does best - and what does best for him, at least financially. And he believes the market is better in Charleston than in metro Detroit.

"If the gallery was going gangbusters, I might have been able to keep doing it," says Maniscalco, 45. "We didn't have the resources. It just came down to that."

Warm and energetic but also contemplative, Maniscalco, who was raised in St. Clair Shores and Bloomfield Hills and has a degree in music performance and education from Wayne State, leaves feeling eager about starting over in a new place but also frustrated at what he could not accomplish.

Perhaps his biggest disappointment comes from his failure to start an association of art dealers, which he hoped would transform and revitalize Detroit's art scene. He saw the coalition as a way to standardize practices for selling art in the region as well as increase promotion for local artists, which in turn could have meant better sales for him and other art dealers.

The other gallery owners just weren't interested, he says.

Over the years, Maniscalco has become one of the most visible personalities on Detroit's art scene, leaving no opportunity untested. While maintaining a steady clientele for his portraits, he has served on local arts boards; written a column for a Grosse Pointe newsletter; published a novel, "The Fishfly" (PublishAmerica, $16.95); taught painting classes; created a Web-based list for arts lovers, and, most notably, jump-started a show called "Art Beat" on WTVS-TV (Channel 56, PBS).

But he's still disenchanted. "Galleries are supposed to deliver art," he says, "and in this market, they have completely failed in doing so."

Phaedra Robinson, 30, an artist and former director of the now-closed Detroit Contemporary Gallery, says Maniscalco "tried very hard to make changes here in Detroit and has an idealistic perspective. Unfortunately, everything didn't happen."

Some successful gallery owners, like George N'Namdi, who started in Detroit and now has galleries in New York and Chicago, disagree with Maniscalco, saying local artists receive more support and promotion than people think. Could there be more? Sure, says N'Namdi. But it's still a vibrant arts market, he says.

Gilda Snowden, a painter and curator of a gallery at the Detroit Repertory Theatre, says she does not always agree with Maniscalco's ideas, but she credits him with giving exposure to local artists.

"We're losing Robert, and I'm really sorry about that because Robert is a spark plug," says Snowden. "You can disagree or agree with him but he is a spark plug."

Dressed in a funky throwback shirt and blazer from the now-closed Beatnix on the Avenue in Ferndale, Maniscalco made his first appearance on "Art Beat" in fall 2003 after approaching the station with the idea.

He had been doing a similar show on Comcast in Grosse Pointe, but the past two seasons on WTVS-TV have made him a force on the Detroit arts scene and a familiar face to viewers.

Sporting an easy smile, Maniscalco has given his show its own sense of style by playfully barging into the studios of local artists, armed with a palette of questions and jokes.

In one episode, Maniscalco strolled the halls of the 4731 Gallery in Detroit just before an interview with painter and sculptor Kwame Awuku, saying, "I hear the clunk, clunk, clunk of a carving man."

At times, Maniscalco has allowed his own philosophy to slip through. "I say blessed is the artist who is able to do what they love to do and it actually is marketable," he told Awuku in that episode. "It sells itself and you don't have to go to the market."

Snowden says she doesn't know if her appearances on the show helped her sales, but she's sure they raised her profile.

"Where else can an artist get a half an hour of commercial-free air time on television?" says Snowden, who also teaches at the College for Creative Studies, where she has used episodes of "Art Beat" in her art history classes.

Now, with Maniscalco's departure, the show may disappear. The artist (who says he will continue making occasional episodes of his Grosse Pointe show, "Inside Art," after he leaves) says he would agree to fly back frequently from South Carolina to tape episodes of the WTVS show.

For that to happen, however, the station needs to find at least $25,000 to air a third season. WTVS has a long way to go to hit that goal, says Jeff Forster, vice president for production.

"I would like to keep doing it because in some ways it's kind of guerilla television," Forster says. "It's kind of raw. I wouldn't call myself an art aficionado, but I really enjoy seeing real people behind these works of art. Even better, they're all from Detroit."

A serene portrait of WDIV-TV (Channel 4) anchor Carmen Harlan standing in her garden, done by Maniscalco with soft brush strokes and eye-pleasing colors, is one of several paintings that greet visitors who stroll into the Maniscalco Gallery on Mack Avenue.

Maniscalco describes his style as expressive realism, saying he strives to tell a story about each person in his painting through his or her expression, pose, environment and gaze.

The gallery, with its teal walls and colorful stained glass, is just three years old. In 1997, Maniscalco opened his first gallery in Detroit a few blocks away, where he stirred a minor controversy by displaying a sculpture of a nude woman on the sidewalk.

He later sold the sculpture but saved some of the notes sparked by it, including one left in a mailbox that says: "Robert, I think you should rethink your taste. I find this Grosse."

Robert and Amanda Maniscalco, who is also an artist, moved their gallery and framing business to Grosse Pointe in January 2002, thinking business would pick up.

Instead, Robert Maniscalco says, revenue flat-lined at about $250,000 a year while the costs of maintaining the gallery continued to rise. There was barely enough profit to pay them both minimum-wage salaries.

Robert Maniscalco drew on his 26 years of portrait painting to fund the gallery; still, it struggled. With the move to South Carolina, where Amanda Maniscalco's mother lives, he is leaving the gallery business. The couple are expecting another child in July.

"It's a shame it has to happen," Robinson says of the gallery closing. "The art market is hurting pretty bad. It's really a good indication of the whole market in general."

Robert Maniscalco points to the lack of a substantial gallery row in metro Detroit and complains of a lack of infrastructure to educate patrons and deliver art. But he's not giving up on Detroit entirely. He will have someone representing his work here and plans on jetting back often to visit family and paint portraits, which currently sell for $6,000 to $18,000.

And he has not ruled out reopening his gallery in the Motor City someday.

"I will always be connected to Detroit," he says. "First of all, it's my home and, you know, it's my heart."

Contact ERIN CHAN at 313-222-6696 or chan@freepress.com.

ROBERT MANISCALCO

Age: 45

Occupation: portrait painter, gallery owner

Home: Grosse Pointe

Raised in: St. Clair Shores and Bloomfield Hills

Education: Bachelor's degree in music performance and education from Wayne State University

Training: Apprenticed with his father, portrait painter Joseph Maniscalco

Other accomplishments: Host of "Art Beat" on WTVS-TV (Channel 56); wrote a novel called "The Fishfly"; writes a monthly column called "Pointe of Art" for the Pointer News

Caption: Robert Maniscalco poses near a commissioned portrait of Carmen Harlan. He is shutting down his Grosse Pointe gallery and moving to South Carolina, saying the arts community in Detroit has failed to market its artists.

Robert Maniscalco, 45, plays with his son, Danny, 15 months, in his gallery, which will close Friday. Though he is moving to South Carolina, "I will always be connected to Detroit," he says.

Illustration: Photo ROMAIN BLANQUART/Detroit Free Press
Section: FTR; FEATURES
Edition: METRO FINAL
PageNo: 1D
Keywords: art; exhibit; Robert Maniscalco; biography; interview