How we'd rework the "Work"

I'm having lots of fun hearing from you guys about "Work of Art." Hey, have you read some of your fellow readers' comments? Here are a few samples from the first two episodes of the reality show.

EP 1

Laurel's enjoying the show, and agrees with many of my art picks as well as my snark about the "villain":

My favorite was the orange portrait - very affecting, not affected! And I do love orange, so that helped. I'm looking forward to more of this, I must admit. Let's see if they get rid of Now next. She's unbearable.

In the premiere, we cannonball into the WoA pool of contestants. A relatively diverse cast, as these things go. But I'm not bothering (at least, not for now) to use their actual names. On this blog, they are: the Villain Nao/Now, Tortured Artist, Starvingartist, the Goofball, the Designated Hotness, the Newb, the Old Lady/the Gray Panther, the Black Guy/ Cartoony Boy,  the Weird White Girl, the Christian, the Effin' Hipster, Hilary Swank's Double, and the Black Girl/The Undercover Misfit.

The judges haven't yet really established their personas, but the host formula is set. SJP (Sarah Jessica Parker) cameos, Switzerland is the main host, and the Designated Expert butts in to distract the artists as they work.

Misfit gets eliminated for an unfocused piece that looks more like a scrapbook paper background than a portrait.

EP 2

So far, most of y'all who've spoken up are tolerating the format for the sake of seeing the art. Michelle says:
I'm still on the fence about this show; I can't decide whether it's a good idea badly executed or just a bad idea all around.

WoA gets on Laurel's nerves for the same reason the other reality shows do: they take each contestant so far outside of their area of expertise:

... so that gradually they bleed all the individuality out of them, and the winner is the one who can do everything well. But...but...why do we need that? There's room in the world for each of us to be outstanding in our field, isn't there? Huh?
But then I guess there wouldn't be any show. Sigh.

Agony abounds in ep 2 for the artist contestants: They're asked to make assemblages out of old electronics, but most of them have little or no experience in 3D art. Some definite standouts, though. Tortured Artist wins partly on the strength of the piece, partly because he's the most melodramatically arty.

This is Tortured's second win. He loosens up enough to mouth off about how "distractingly boring" he finds Hipster's piece, as Evil Greg noted.

Hipster gets eliminated for a piece that was basically three repainted tv sets allegedly communicating with each other.

Don't be shy about commenting! Especially if it's your first time... one of last week's commenters said hi all the way from Malaysia! I'm thinking tomorrow's ep will have a deliberate undercutting twist at the last minute that forces the contestants to redo everything. See you Thursday for the snarkfest.

"What are we supposed to do with this junk?!"

Did you see last night's "Work of Art"? The contestants were confronted with a warehouse full of discarded electronics, and then told to make it into art. Oh, I thought I'd die laughing. The typical response to the challenge:

You might've noticed that many of the artists work 2D, not 3D. They're photographers, realist painters, silkscreen printers. Most have little or no assemblage experience, and it really showed. Designated Hotness actually said, "Omigod, I don't know what I'm doing."

Hotness wanted to make a tank to fill with water and an empty TV. Except she had no clue whatsoever about adhesives. (Not even how to get a clump of adhesive out of her hair.) So she whines for help, and Starvingartist takes time away from his piece to help her make hers. Lots of caulk jokes follow.

The only "mixed-media artist," the Gray Panther, couldn't pull her piece together either.

She chose lots of cables, rather than TV monitors like many others had; not following the pack, but not blazing a trail either.

Hilary Swank's Double, on the other hand, was KILLIN' the challenge! 

HSD created sort of an archaelogical/geological chasm inside an old-style TV turned on its side. And Cartoony Boy went back to his roots as a child video game addict for this piece.

The joystick plugs into the statue's navel like an umbilical cord. And don't you love how it somehow doesn't tip over? Even more awesome, because he had to rework the design from two kids to one, and bulk up the frame with paper and painter's tape under the plaster strips.

But it was Tortured Artist who took the win.

The unfamiliar environment has his OCD working overtime -- can't get any rest. So he silkscreened and created a large pillow, which he placed on top of a makeshift bed. (Don't even ask about the pillows on each side.) The idea was to create the world's least restful spot to sleep. The clincher:

Tortured "activated" his piece by shutting out the sensory overload: He took a nap on the bed during the gallery showing.

And guess who went home?

The Hipster. Don't cry for him: his career is already so established that many of the contestants had heard of him before they met him. This was all about exposure for him. So I'm sure he and too-cool-for-the-room haircut will be just fine.

Most of the other artists went home without comment, which must've saved some of them last night. Sometimes in these competitions, it's enough to stay just above the worst contestant. What did you think?

Talk about a piece of "Work"...

It's Thursday -- time to dissect and snark about Bravo's new reality show "Work of Art." A weekly dose of art world crazy. 

I love the opening credits... clever of them to use light signatures and paint on the (plexiglass in front of the) camera lens to introduce each contestant.  Bravo also gets a few points for including a contestant who isn't fashionably skinny, and a few who are over the age of 25.

And because this is a reality show, Bravo very early on established the artist you're going to love to hate.

Her name is pronounced "NAY-oh" but I read it as "NOW." As in "go home NOW. You're breathtakingly arrogant, and it's not even 5 minutes into the show." She walks through the gallery of the contestants' self-portraits, dismissing each piece with a wave of her hand. Here's a quote: "I feel like I've already won... and so I think that I could be really generous with my criticism."

Oh, it's on nao! Now. Whatever.

First challenge is for each artist to do a portrait of another artist in the group. Here's where you see each artist's style, but more importantly who fits which characterization. Besides the Arrogant B!@#$ mentioned above, there's the Tortured Artist...

two Starving Artists... The Goofball... the Hotness...

The Newb... The Old Lady... The Black Guy (aka Cartoony Boy)...

The Weird White Girl... The Christian... The Effin' Hipster...

Hilary Swank's Double... and The Black Girl/The Undercover Misfit. (We'll talk about the judges when we get to know them better.)

You've also seen the host formula on other shows. Here, you get China Chow, Simon de Pury, and Sarah Jessica Parker. SJP apparently will make a 30-second cameo in each episode, because she's exec producer. China plays the Heidi Klum role -- no, "Switzerland" because she's icy and allegedly neutral -- and de Pury is the Designated Expert.

Surprisingly, I did actually like the art created in this first episode. Usually the color orange sets my teeth on edge, but Abdi's portrait was so vibrant that I actually liked the orange background. Miles' concept of a modern funeral portrait was captivating, and also made a nod to Nao's self-portrait. But someone had to go home because as Switzerland put it, "your Work of Art didn't work for us."

Yup, The Black Girl. Which wasn't a surprise... she landed in the bottom three level with The Newb and Nao/Now. But The Newb wasn't going to be offed because it would be like kicking a puppy. And Nao/Now had to stay because she's a reliable source of drama.

I could go on, but I want to hear what you thought about it! Which "Work of Art didn't work for you?" Comment and I'll put your name in the hat to receive a copy of a book in which my art appears, "Good Mail Day"!