Anyone else watching this? I caught part of it the other day while channel surfing and was able to catch up via my cable’s On Demand service. There have only been three episodes so far.
It’s a competition reality show in the mold of Project Runway, and it airs on that show’s original home network, Bravo. The competitors are artists with varying degrees of experience–from a complete amateur who has never had anything in any gallery to artists who are “names” in New York art circles. They are also fairly diverse in terms of style, preferred media, and personality.
The host is a stony-faced beauty named China Chow. She apparently is an actress (appeared in Burn Notice!) and former model who grew up among artists.
Each week there is a challenge with a theme, of course, but it is interesting to see how differently they interpret their subjects. One week was portraits, another required them to use pieces of old technology (televisions, video games, etc) and another assignment was to design a book cover for a classic novel (they randomly drew the novels, including Dracula, Alice in Wonderland, Pride and Prejudice, The Time Machine, etc). The book cover challenge was really cool.
I like the show. As I said, it’s very much like Project Runway, even down to the well-dressed silver-haired gentlemen who views the works-in-progress and gives the artists feedback. He’s no Tim Gunn, but he’s nice enough. I watch PR, but I find Work of Art a little more accessible because it involves art in a more “open” format than the fashion designs of PR.
I have never seen any advertising for this show, and I don’t know how well it is doing ratings-wise, but I hope it gets enough of a following to get renewed. So… any other Dopers watching?
It’s ratings are somewhat low, but they are steadily in reading. As artists, Mr. singular and I enjoy it. Miles is apparently doing this as performance art, but I enjoy his results. I loved the book cover challenge, altho I would’ve picked Dracula (with the spot-on edit of less blood). It should be interesting to see what happens next week, with the Piss Christ artist as guest judge. I predict the Xian lady’s head might explode and the shy artist will once again get nude.
I like it to though Simon de Pury is no Tim Gunn. Don’t care for Miles but more importantly, don’t care for the stuff he’s done (under the guise of performance art or not).
The book challenge was fun to watch. I was surprised so many contestants struggled with it. And I wonder if the judges were really that stupid not to realize Judith spelled “Pride and Prejudice” backwards.
I was really surprised at how Miles pounced on Trong’s piece during the judging in the technology challenge. I mean, he was right that it was really boring and probably deserved to lose, but it seems like poor sportsmanship to denounce the work–unprompted–while the judges are critiquing it.
I like the kinda chubby guy who works with photography, and the young girl (not the nudist), and the black guy. Obviously I haven’t gotten names down for everyone yet.
Yeah, this week’s “shock art” challenge should be very interesting.
I’m sure they figured it out right away, but were rightfully trying to make her feel uncomfortable for a horrible horrible design that made absolutely no sense, and would confuse people browsing in a book store. I didn’t like Judith. I really hate that kind of contestant - “I’m so much better than this show and I’m not going to demean myself by actually doing what they want! Wah wahh!” Miles also gets on my nerves with his “performance art.”
So far I really like Abdi, I think he’s the most talented there (but his book cover sucked.) The portrait he painted in the first challenge was amazing. I also like the thin dark-haired guy who did the “Jekyll & Hyde” cover.
When I first saw previes for this, I thought the show would be unwatchable, but surprisingly it’s entertaining and for the most part, the art created has been pretty cool. It’s better than Shear Genius and Top Design, but below Project Runway and Top Chef.
I was disappointed to find this was a case of being particularly manipulated by editing. When Miles came out with his “boring” comment, it was :eek:shocking:eek: because it was so cruel and arbitrary and appeared to simply be a rude insult, thinking he had a right to judge. Then this last episode we saw the judges ask one of the contestants to critique another, so apparently it is a normal part of the judging to get opinions from the contestants. That’s a cheap shot, in my opinion. Miles is enough of a nutbag that they don’t need to manufacture anything.
Ah, I must have missed that. They sure made it look like he was jumping out of his shoes at the chance to trash a fellow artist. Tricksy reality show editors! :mad:
The judges are pretentious tools. I haven’t seen the last one (comments a week late), but laying on a bed is not sculpture. I don’t care if he built the pieces from the junkyard (did he?). It was freaking performance art but the sleeping on the bed is oh so daring. Why did Trong get axed? Not because of his work (the painted lamp and vaccuum should have gone) but he dared to insult reality TV. Oh noes!
Good points and I’m certainly not sorry to see Judith gone.
I liked Abdi’s portrait too. His use of color rocked. I was sorry his sculpture for the book competition didn’t turn out well. I wanted to see what he was going to do with it.
While I wasn’t really all that impressed with the art, it was an interesting episode. The judges didn’t hold back in their critiques, which I was glad to see. It was funny watching Simon de Pury dance around certain words and ideas as he talked with the artists about their works-in-progress.
I thought for sure the Christian lady would be going home, but I agree with the final decision. Nao had no idea what she was doing, she just threw some random stuff together. John’s just seemed like something a 13 year old boy would draw.
As for the winner, Abdi had an interesting idea but it seemed unfinished. It did look like Jaclyn should have given more credit to Erik for the ‘writing comments on the photos’ idea, but you never can trust reality-show editors.
I liked Miles’s concept, but I think his drawings looked a little too abstract. It was hard to tell though, since the camera didn’t linger on any closeups too long. There was a lot of blurring in this episode. Oh, and Miles’s “finishing touch” on his work seemed unnecessary. I really wish we had seen some discussion of that with the judges.
Seconded. And if you must take a picture of yourself…find somewhere else to take it than the bathroom. Is there no lock on that door?? People just pop in and out.
Are we sure Jaclyn isn’t confusing “exhibitionist” with “artist”? Anyone who bought a copy of P&P with a half naked chick on the cover would be in for a let down. I’m almost hoping she lasts 'til almost the finale just so we can see if it’s possible to work a nude image of herself into every single challenge.
I won’t miss Nao’s relentless criticism of everyone around her. I guess it works well for the show, but I find it tiresome.
My heart actually goes goes out to Sweet Painter Purebred. I don’t remember her name, sorry. I studied painting at university with a fairly well repected program (in the mid 80s). What I’m good at, and what I like to do is make realistic paintings, often of pretty things. That gets you nowhere in art school. Smear some feces, staple some road kill…A+. Lovely welle xecuted still life? “Technically it isn’t awful, but what’s your point of view?” “Peonies are pretty” is not edgy enough. I agreed that her last supper wasn’t shocking, but I think her work has a little more merit than she’s given credit for. Please don’t think I’m saying she should win the grand prize. I’m pulling for Abdi. Since I’m fairly sure these things are rigged anyway I’m expecting Miles will win it all.
Agree wholeheartedly about Jaclyn. The judges kept saying that it took guts to “put herself out there” and I’m thinking, well, no, not for her it doesn’t. She seems to get off on it, actually. And no, I really don’t think they *are *real. . .
I was really glad to see Nao go. She needs to learn the diference between “shocking” and “appalling.” Grossing people out does not equal informing, or widening their horizons. There has to be some point you are making. When Serrano started talking about how it worked as a metaphor for homelessness, I was scared she might actually score well. What was the bag of paint supposed to be anyway?!?
I agree about the Last Supper. Not that I thought it should have won but I don’t think it deserved the level of vitriol it got. It reminded me a lot of the tacky imagery associated with evangelical churches which I thought was clever if it was intentional. In particular, it reminded me of this:
Overall, the idea of creating “shocking” art seems contrived (and on reality tv, who would have thought?) but it was interesting to see Andres Serrano on television and I really liked Abdi’s piece. It was also nice that he was one of the few who didn’t go to the well with a sex-themed work. I’m glad he won.