4lP

Taking A Look At
The Local Art Scene...

Rock On A Roll

SUZANNE CHESSLER SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS

S

ounds of rock recordings play up the
mood at one of Royal Oak's newest
art galleries — Rockcity. Concert
posters from the early '60s to the pre-
sent — from the MC-5 to Tori Amos with a
bevy of rock stars from the times in between
— fill the small building at 108 W. Fourth
Street.
Owner Steve Gluskin offers posters that
range in price from $10 to $1,000, catering
to focused fans as well as value-conscious
collectors. Rock, folk and blues performers
— from the Beatles and The Grateful Dead
to Bob Dylan, Santana, and B.B. King— are
' shown.
. "I buy most of the work directly from the
artists," said Gluskin, 32. "Sometimes I buy
posters from collectors, or from other poster
shops." Many are signed by the artists.
Gluskin opened the gallery this past sum-
mer with his brother, Mark, 36, an invest-
ing and planning partner living in California.
The two decided to launch their business as
an offshoot of a shared personal interest.
"Mark has been collecting rock art for 10
years, and I've been doing it for about six,"
said Steve Gluskin, who gave up work in the
construction business to operate the gallery
full time. His brother continues with his own
firm, protecting pipelines against corrosion.
"After Mark moved to San Francisco, he
came across several poster galleries, and one
day, while we were talking about them, we
discussed how many posters we had col-
lected. At that point, we decided to give the
gallery a try.
"Since I still like collecting posters in my
spare time, I feel like I'm earning my living
by extending my hobby," he said.
Rockcity has an inventory of about 250
posters and will try to find additional posters

for requesting customers, who range in age
from young teen-agers to baby boomers turn-
ing 50. Among the artists represented are.
Mark Arminski, Gary Grimshaw and Wes
Wilson.
"I have customers who come in simply be-
cause they like the way certain posters look,"
Gluskin said. "Some have a special interest
in a band, while others want mementos of
concerts they attended.
"My own collection is a mixture of all
three. I have older posters advertising ball-
rooms like the Fillmore West in San Fran-
cisco and the Grande Ballroom in Detroit,
and I have newer posters showing groups
like Nirvana and Pearl Jam."
Gluskin said availability determines the
prices of his posters. Like other collectibles,
the ones that are harder to get are more ex-
pensive.
"Originally, the posters were strictly for
advertising, letting people know the times,
dates and places of concerts," he explained.
"They weren't meant to be collectibles, but
after fans started keeping them, artists start-
ed doing them in limited amounts, signing
and numbering them."
Right now, posters of Phish, a band with
Jewish members, are among the most pop-
ular.
"I think people should buy posters they
like instead of those they hope will go up
in value," recommended Gluskin, who also
stocks rock postcards and T-shirts. "Value
is hard to predict. For the newer bands, the
prices of their posters will depend on
whether they make it big.
"The resale value comes with finding the
market, just like collectors of baseball cards
and movie posters must find markets for
what they have saved." El

LIPPITT

THE DE TROIT JEWISH NEWS

BY DANIEL

PHOTO

Steve
Gluskin:
Posters of
Phish are
swimming
out of
Rockcity.

Plentiful Potters

More than 130 potters will offer their work Friday-Sunday, Dec. 6-8, at
the 21st annual Oakland Community College Royal Oak Campus Pot-
ters Market. Hand-crafted ceramic sculptures, jewelry, housewares, or-
naments and much more will fill 12,000 square feet in the United Food
and Commercial Workers' Union Hall, 876 Horace Brown Dr., Madison
Heights. Hours are 10 a.m.-8 p.m. Friday, 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Saturday and
10 a.m.-5 p.m. Sunday.
A benefit preview will be held 7-9 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 5. Proceeds will
support student technology purchases for the college's Royal Oak and
Southfield campuses. (810) 540-1540.

Robert Nixon: Unfilled, ceramic pottery.

Fiction

James Stephens ex-
presses dark views of
urban industrial life
through images of de-
funct, castoff artifacts
of society. The artist
originally projected his
views through paint-
ings that show decay
against a background
of turbulent skies and
cityscapes. Recently,
he added sculptural
forms to his body of
work.
The artist's second
solo exhibition at the
Bunting Gallery, 514
S. Washington, Royal
Oak, runs until Dec.
27. A graduate of De-
troit's Center for Creative Studies, Stephens
now lives in Chicago. (810) 545-4820.

James Stephens: Zug
Twins, oil on canvas.

Suzanne Chessler is a freelance writer who compiles and writes our
"Hanging Around" Fine Arts pages. Ifyou have information about art
happenings you wish to have considered for our Fine Arts section,
including show openings and ongoing exhibits, please send your