Anthony Marsalese
Bloomfield Township resident Anthony Marsalese has owned Antonino Salon and Spa in Birmingham for 40 years, but that's not where his creative endeavors stop. The 2024 International Design Exhibition & Marketplace at the Metropolitan Museum of Design Detroit recently featured two unique ceramic pieces made by Marsalese, who also has done theater and originally attended Wayne State University to pursue music.
“I played the trumpet and sang and performed, and I also took piano lessons,” he said. But Marsalese excelled in doing hair and his uncle – a well-known hairdresser in Detroit – encouraged him to open his own salon, which he did.
Still, Marsalese always likes to have more than one creative outlet for inspiration and exploration. “I feel being creative in other areas makes me a more creative hairdresser,” he said.
For around 20 years, Marsalese performed with St. Dunstan’s Theater in Bloomfield Hills. But the first ceramics class he took at the Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center (BBAC) almost 40 years ago left a lasting impression.
“Around 2013, I started taking ceramics classes again because I could do that on my own time,” he said.
“I go every week and I have a studio at home, so I can do ceramics either before or after work. In the classes, you form relationships with the people who are there and we inspire each other.”
His work has been selling, like the bowls he made that have become a signature item. “I got a commission piece for one of my clients who wanted a bowl like the one I made, but bigger,” said Marsalese. “I have different styles, but I mostly do hand-building and coiling.”
The 2024 International Design Exhibition & Marketplace at the Metropolitan Museum of Design Detroit featured artists with ancestors from Finland, Poland and Italy. “I was asked to be in the show, which was quite an honor. It had a really nice representation of different countries and I had that Italian heritage,” he noted. “I had a bowl coiled with blue, white and black porcelain, which is extremely soft when building.”
His creative process takes time. “I have to build the bowl upside-down. It has to dry to a certain point and there is a lot of babysitting. When it’s just right, I flip it over and manipulate it, so it ends up looking very much like the ocean or the sea,” said Marsalese. “It has a real organic look to it. There is some glaze, but it’s mostly raw.”
The bowls are for decorative purposes. “It’s more of a sculpture art piece. It has an organic oceanic look to it,” he said. “And at the museum, I also had a really crazy piece. People ask: ‘What is it?’ and I tell them, ‘It’s just a thing.’ At the grand opening, the new piece really got a lot of attention. It’s quite different. It just kind of happened.”
That natural approach has served him well.
“My work mostly looks out of control. I can do controlled, but I like motion or movement, probably like I do with hair,” said Marsalese. “It’s really a collaboration with what the client envisions, but if their hair wants to do something and you go with it, you can get a better result. I kind of work with the hair and go with the clay, too.”
Story: Jeanine Matlow
Photo: Matthew Cromwell
