Dean Manning has a big artistic side. He is a musician and a self-taught artist. He is a sculptor, painter, guitarist and song writer – with a degree in filmmaking.
From what it seems to me, not one of Dean’s talents is a simple hobby. Expressing yourself through art is much deeper than that.
Dean Manning is now into his fourth solo exhibition, the preparation of which hasn’t stopped him from obligations with his band Holidays on Ice, created following the breakdown of his previous band Leonardo’s Bride. He has been a finalist in the Sulman and Blake prizes, his work is held in the collections of Artbank and Deakin University.
Dean devotes himself to all arts, depending on the medium that expresses him best at a certain moment.
“It sometimes depends on what I want to say and I have to choose the medium that will help me best express that; and then sometimes we are making a record and for a year that’s what I do – I express myself musically. Sometimes I know there is an exhibition coming so I must express myself with painting or sculpture.
“It’s mixed up, there is not much order in my life,” Dean concludes when he realises his response works only in the world of arts.
“You are an artist,” I say in approval of his messy world.
“I have a license,” he agrees.
In Dean Manning’s family, that of a long history in Australia – since his maternal grandparents arrived on Australian shores in 1910, and since his father Nick Maniarizis (therefrom comes Manning) arrived from Volos in 1948 – there is no direct connection with art.
Dean points his finger at his paternal grandfather, a clarinet player from the island of English tradition and big bands, Corfu. Once he stopped playing music, he was a writer and editor of a newspaper in Volos.
Then he makes a parallel with his father Nick Manning, now 86. A businessman, who wrote a book.
“So, there is a bit of artistry that runs in the family,” Dean concludes.
With both the rich musical and arts oeuvres behind him, Dean manages to marry the multiple faces and talents of his. They are intertwined, he says, and he offers as a supporting argument that his painting came into play once he started designing record covers for his music.
“People enjoyed them, they would make comments, but it took maybe 10 years before I had an exhibition. I was really busy with the music; and to do art I needed to just stop music for a year. When I did that I had my first exhibition, and things have happened since then. So my painting and music are very intertwined,” he tells Neos Kosmos.
And Dean needs both of these art worlds to keep his balance.
Somewhere in the frame fits film making, as the only artform Dean has a degree for. For the new Holidays on Ice record he made a series of small films for each song.
For Dean, there is no other way but for art, as a matter of self-expression in the life of an artist, to be autobiographical.
He never writes with other people – performers – in mind.
“I paint the things I see. In my music I write about the things that I feel.
“In music a lot of people write songs from the perspective of someone else – I find it hard to do this, I can only write about what I know.
”I’ve tried writing for other people and it’s a disaster. Song writing is too autobiographical to be able to do it,” he says.
When you talk to a man who has been practicing art for 30 years, like Dean Manning, you can’t help yourself but ask the most common of all questions – where does he draw his inspiration from?
Dean keeps it simple.
“The world is a big and wonderful place in life, in general it’s quite remarkable, so there is always something to inspire you.”
Most recently, it was Dean’s trip to Athens two years ago, with the purpose of creating, that inspired his new body of art that is now showcased at the Sheffer Gallery in Sydney.
Entitled ‘And as a monkey you took me to the fair’, the exhibition is a collection of 15 paintings, sculptures and several films of the multifaceted artist, inspired by Greece.
The films are Greek myths, Dean says, while the sculpture and painting are based on “wonderful things” the artist witnessed in Athens.
And in all the chaos of the Athens of crisis, Dean says there is another perspective to look for.
“I went to the folk museum, there was a display of farmers’ outfits as they used to dress up as animals in the 12 days of the Epiphany, for good luck and prosperity in the harvest. The people were dressed up as animals. So the themes that appear in the exhibition are my feeling of Greece at that time.
“Athens was pretty amazing – I understand that there is a grave economic crisis, but there is another perspective to see the crisis as well.
“Every night there was a contemporary gallery having an opening, the contemporary art scene was impressive and with a large audience. Combined with the existing museums and antiquities, to me it was one of the most exciting artistic centres in the world.”
Now, more than ever, there is energy in Greece, Dean says. In a lot of small towns people are comfortable and there is not much to rebel about like in Athens. And Greece at the moment has much to say.
As a visitor but not an outsider, Dean hugged it all.
“I applaud the incredible youth and the street art of Athens. It’s nearly like Berlin 30 years ago.”

From my room I could hear the speeches and music from the demonstrations. The downtown streets teemed with people of all nationalities. The queue at the Acropolis snaked for miles. In between it all Athenians went about their business, much as I imagine they’ve done and will do for thousands of years.

Dean Manning’s exhibition of paintings, sculpture and video is now on at Sheffer Gallery, 38 Lander Street, Darlington, Sydney.

The exhibition runs until Saturday July 5, daily from 11.00 am to 6.00 pm. For more information, contact (02) 93105683 or visit www.sheffergallery.com