Lots of kids grow up wanting to be firefighters or pro athletes. Sean Michanczyk wanted to be an art gallerist.
“I remember being in elementary school and visiting galleries with my mother, always out and about,” Michanczyk says. “I thought it would be kind of cool to open one.”
In 2009 he did, in a building his father owned in Southington. He named his space Paris in Plantsville and it became a hub of the local arts community. Michanczyk’s gallery will end its run Saturday, April 30, when Paris in Plantsville puts on a one-day show, “Fin,” then closes for good.
The show features artists who have shown at the gallery in the past.
“It’s just really kind of a fun. no theme to it,” Michanczyk says. Some of them are Tao LaBossiere, Christine Ivers, the late Ajay Brainard, the late Jordan Deschene, Andre Rochester, H.L. Groen, Andrea Bills, Michele Tragakiss, David Santamaria, Florin Ion Firimita, Greg Shea, Eric Stegmaier and Clinton Deckert.
Deckert, a Southington-based surrealist painter, met Michanczyk on opening night of Paris in Plantsville’s first exhibit. Since then, he has been involved with the gallery in group and solo shows, as a curator and a juror.
“I had shown in New York and Boston, but his was a good venue for me to be able to share my work with the hometown crowd,” Deckert says. “I made new friends and met with collectors as well. That place became the catalyst of cool. It was a great venue.”
Deckert currently has a solo show on the walls at New Britain Museum of American Art. The local visibility he gained at Paris in Plantsville helped fill that gallery.
“It was the most well-attended NEW/NOW opening that I have seen,” says NBMAA spokeswoman Melissa Nardiello.
Michanczyk, whose “day job” is concept design for fireplaces, is looking to focus on other areas of his life. He is turning 30 soon, getting married and wants to spend his spare time creating his own art.
“I want to spread my wings a little bit as an artist,” he says. “It’s been deeply missed.”
“FIN” will be at Paris in Plantsville, 15 W. Main St. in the Plantsville section of Southington, Saturday, April 30, from 6 p.m. to midnight. parisinplantsville.com. Clinton Deckert’s show at NBMAA, 56 Lexington St., is up until June 7. nbmaa.org.
