40 | FEBRUARY 9 • 2023 

er, “What is your décor?” in 
an attempt to determine the 
customer’s personal style. 
“If someone wanted a blue 
mat, I’d ask, ‘Why the blue?’ 
There has to be a reason why. 
Sometimes I might persuade 
the person that another color 
would be better.”
A creator of sketches and 
lithographs, with a fondness 
for abstracts, Paliti said he 
has always pursued the goals 
of “educating people about 
art, displaying art and loving 
art.” He added, “There is no 
such thing as ‘bad’ art — it’s 
just different, and different 
does not mean bad.” 
Paliti said he’s never dispar-
aged anything brought to him 
to frame. Besides pictures, 
he’s framed jerseys, collages 
and shadowbox items. Paliti 
is proud of being tapped as a 
framer for four movies made 
in Detroit during the 2008-
2015 heyday of generous tax 
incentives for Michigan’s film 
industry.

PROFESSIONAL PRAISE
“The work that Izzy does is so 
superior,” said his close friend 
Stan Carlson of Southfield. 
“I’d call him a master framer. 
He’s framed or restored more 
than 100 works for me.”

 The men “hit it off imme-
diately, 15 or 20 years ago” 
when Stan, then an interior 
decorator, brought Paliti a 
piece to frame by his artist 
son, Bowen Kline of Romeo.
“Izzy really liked my son’s 
work and sold some of it in 
his store,” Carlson said. Pieces 
that Paliti personally matted, 
framed and then sold rep-
resented a smaller aspect of 
Metro Frame’s business. 
Kline’s “expressive portrait” 
of Paliti, as well as a picture 
depicting a sunny day under 
umbrellas in the old port city 
of Jaffa (Yafo), near Tel Aviv, 
hang in the Palitis’ neat-as-a-
pin colonial-style home pur-
chased in 1999. The array of 
framed art, vintage furniture, 
Sharon’s collection of antique 
teacup sets, and more, were 
found at flea markets, estate 
and garage sales or through 
Izzy’s art world connections. 
Three of his favorite paint-
ings have Israel connections: 
one by the late architect-artist 
Louis Redstone shows “The 
Sackhne” (commonly known 
as Gan HaShlosha National 
Park), located not far from 
Beit Alfa — “it reminds me 
of home;” a Tel Aviv market 
scene by Yehudah Rodan and 
an untitled, colorful floral 

that his mother painted.
After buying the Robert 
Kidd Gallery in Birmingham 
eight years ago, Gerard Marti 
followed up on a recommen-
dation to hire Paliti. Ticking 
off the attributes of the fram-
er who became his friend, 
Marti said Paliti “is very good 
at what he is doing; he is easy 
to work with; his work is 
impressive.”
Another Metro Frame cus-
tomer is Paliti’s friend Ron 
Povich, owner since 1994 of 
the Golden Fig Gallery of 
Fine Arts and Antiques in 

Birmingham. “I met Yisrael 
through Louis Redstone. Yis 
does great framing, paint-
ing repairs and is helpful in 
providing suggestions on the 
right kind of framing to make 
sure the piece looks really 
good. Putting the right frame 
on a piece is all the difference 
between something that’s 
ho-hum and something spec-
tacular.”
Restoration is a whole 
adjunct to framing. Carlson 
said, “Izzy’s restoration work 
is unbelievable. If you take 
him a ripped painting, he 
could fix it to the point where 
you wouldn’t know it was ever 
ripped. Not every frame shop 
could do that.”
With his store behind him, 
Paliti said he isn’t interest-
ed in doing much framing. 
But he still enjoys cleaning 
and repairing works of art. 
He will be keeping his hand 
in with a home-based inde-
pendent business, Metro Art 
Restorations. Those familiar 
with Paliti’s skills couldn’t be 
more pleased. 

continued from page 39

BUSINESS
Sharon and Yisrael 
Paliti will celebrate 
their 50th anniversary 
Feb. 13 on the kibbutz 
where they met in 
Israel.

Yisrael stands by an 
untitled, colorful floral that 
his mother painted.

PHOTOS BY ESTHER ALLWEISS INGBER

