The Daily Beast: "Bravo’s Addictive Work of Art"

The art-world reality competition, Work of Art, with its oddball artists, overly harsh judges, and a terrifically animated mentor has become must-see television.

Let’s be honest: Many of us watch reality television to fulfill a voyeuristic need to peer into other people’s lives, and to perhaps feel better about our own. The staggering success of Bravo’s Real Housewives franchise would seem to prove this, just as, similarly, the cable channel’s reality shows tap this universal human need within the context of competition.

We’ve seen pastry chefs break down about Red Hots, fashion designers make competitors’ mothers cry (Project Runway’s Jeffrey Sebelia, we’re looking at you), but the drama has perhaps never seemed quite so real or the participants quite so tortured as the artists on Bravo’s highly addictive Work of Art, currently airing its second season Wednesday nights at 9 p.m.

Over at The Daily Beast, you can read my latest story, "Bravo’s Addictive Work of Art," in which I look at the unexpected pleasures to be found in Bravo's art competition series.

Work of Art: The Search for the Next Great Artist airs Wednesday nights at 9 p.m. ET/PT.

County Fairs, Dancers, and White Castle: The Winner is Named on the Season Finale of Work of Art

I'll admit that I didn't expect to enjoy Bravo's Work of Art: The Next Great Artist as much as I did in the end.

Before the season began, I was curious just how the format would work. After all, true art takes time to develop, and the series seemed based around the type of severe time restraints that could hamper true creativity.

But a funny thing happened: I found myself sucked in and captivated by what was unfolding before me. I had hoped, all along, that the final three contestants standing would be Miles, Abdi, and Peregrine. And that's just what happened going into last night's season finale of Work of Art ("The Big Show"), in which the final three artists presented a group show, with one of them walking away the winner of the season and their very own show at the Brooklyn Museum of Art.

For one thing, I loved just how very different each of these artists was, how each of them focused on different subject matters and expressed their artistic temperaments in vastly different styles, some preferring oil and charcoal, sculpture and sketches, or massive mechanical parts and rapidly constructed silkscreens. Plus, the troika assembled for the final showdown were all so supportive and encouraging of one another, which was refreshing to see on a reality competition series.

I also really wanted to see what each of them would be able to pull off, given a longer time frame to work with and without camera crews and fellow contestants hovering over them. As I said earlier, true art takes time. It can't always be cobbled together in a few hours before midnight and inspiration and execution take time.

There's no way, for example, that Abdi could have created those sculptures in an evening in the Work of Art studio; they were the products of precision, time, and effort unfolding over the course of several months rather than a scant few hours. Which is what true Art--with an intentional capital-A--is really all about: the artistic process itself. I'm glad that the producers of Work of Art did realize this, granting the final three artists a larger timeframe to work with, taking the format of the final show from Magical Elves' former reality competition hit, Project Runway. It's a device that not only allowed the finalists time to contemplate and reflect, but also for the cameras to follow them home and check in on their progress and their life after filming on the majority of the season has wrapped.

What we see in their work is vastly different than what we glimpsed on the series. There's far more thought and conceptualizing going on here, as each of them tackles themes that are important to them, themes that are enacted in a variety of work and media, allowing them to built towards a show with a vast array of pieces, rather than one singular work.

So what did I think of their final efforts? Let's discuss.

Despite his efforts to stay away from being so rigid and orderly, Miles still managed to remain too constricted, creating a series of pieces that tackled both death and surveillance but remained out of reach. There was a tantalizing quality to the series, which depicted elderly patrons of a local White Castle--and the homeless man who froze to death outside two days after his picture was snapped by Miles-but the work remained far too lodged within Miles' own head.

He had stumbled onto an intriguing concept but it was a concept that hadn't quite worked itself out yet, remaining something in progress rather than something complete and finished. In particular, I wasn't moved at all by the abstractions that he created from the photographs of the dead man. It was a thought-provoking study but the story behind the pieces were more interesting than the pieces themselves. To the untrained eye, they were abstractions without any concrete coherence.

I was really taken by a lot of Peregrine's work for her County Fair show but agree that she could have done with some editing. While I loved the series of sketches depicting vomiting girls (I'd have to disagree that she should lose those), the empty beeswax portrait frames didn't really move me at all, and I thought that she could have ditched those without impacting the feeling or scope of her show in the least.

The photograph of the twin unborn fawns is something that I can't shake from my mind and I didn't even see it in person. There was something so beautiful and sad, fragile and heartbreaking about the piece, so beautifully lit, that was impossible to escape. Likewise, the wax doll's head under glass and the beautiful yellow horse remained standout pieces that were engaging, complex, and compelling. I thought that she understood her theme well and executed an amazing and ambitious show that showed off the range of her skills and styles and produced some unusual and strong work as a result.

And then there was Abdi, who seemed doomed to fail when his sculptures turned up at the gallery only half-finished. I needn't have worried for Abdi often produces his best work when struggling to finish in the eleventh hour. Despite having some issues with the two massive sculptures, Abdi managed to finish on time and deliver a show of staggering beauty and grace. Those two sculptures, finally removed from their plaster and painted and dressed, remained on the floor. Provocative and beautiful, they seemed to pose a number of questions about their identity and purpose. Were they in a state of repose? Were they dead? Were they stretching for dance or sport?

There was a gracefulness to the bodies that was echoed in several other of his pieces, including the color-inversion self-portrait (inverted in position as well) and the photograph of the bodybag entitled "Home." They asked big questions of not just race and identity but of mortality as well. It was the work of an accomplished technician but also a savvy and inspired artist pondering the mysteries of life and death themselves.

I had a feeling that it would come down to either Abdi or Peregrine in the end, given that Miles' work was a little too abstract in the end. But I'm overjoyed that Abdi took home the grand prize and will get a chance to launch his own show at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. He's completely deserving of the award and the honor and I can't wait to see just what he's able to accomplish on a broader scale. As for Peregrine, I dare say that this isn't the last we hear of her. Her show demonstrated great range and complexity and I think we'll be seeing big things from this accomplished and "otherworldly" artist in the years to come.

What did you think of the season finale? Would you have awarded the win to Abdi? Just what went wrong with Miles' work? Head to the comments section to discuss.

Based on the spot looking for auditions at the end of the episode, it does indeed seem like Work of Art will be back for a second season. Stay tuned for information about a launch date.

Talk Back: What Are You Watching This Summer?

As the Summer Solstice has come and gone now, the hot months of summer are officially in full swing as the broadcast and cable networks bring out their slate of originals and burn-offs during the sweltering season.

While I'm sinking my teeth into quite a bit of programming this summer (including HBO's True Blood, Bravo's Top Chef, and my latest obsession, BBC America's upcoming Come Dine With Me) and catching up on some others (cough, Friday Night Lights, cough), I'm curious to know just what you are watching right now... and what you intend to watch this summer. Are you hooked on USA's dramedies? Can't wait for the return of Entourage? Trembling at the thought of more True Blood? Intrigued by Work of Art? Spooked by the thought of Syfy's Haven?

Head to the comments section to discuss what's on your season pass this summer, what's failed to click with you so far, and what new and returning television series you are most looking forward to over the next few months.

The Secret of Life is in Art: An Advance Review of Bravo's Work of Art

“Art is never finished, only abandoned.” - Leonardo Da Vinci

I'll admit that my expectations for Bravo's newest reality competition series Work of Art were painfully low. After all, this seems just just the sort of series for which you can easily make a snide remark about it being less exciting than watching paint dry.

But I have to say that I was extremely pleasantly surprised by Work of Art, which premieres tonight. Not only was it fast-paced and exciting, but it was slickly produced, thanks in part to the crack team at Magical Elves, which has once again worked its reality magic on this format.

Art isn't the most accessible of topics, yet the show--which is hosted by China Chow--is just that: tearing away the sort of potential pretentiousness of its subject by allowing the audience to enter the minds of some gifted artists--each coming from different media--and participate in the artistic process.

The result is a fun and engaging hour that's overflowing with quirky and memorable contestants, several of whom seem to have forgotten that they're on camera and shouldn't be making biting remarks that will come back to haunt them later on when the judges turn up and harshly criticize their own work.

But while there's definitely enough drama here to pique the attention of Project Runway or Top Chef fans, there's also something exciting about the format as well, which sees the artists get a different assignment each week. In the series premiere, it's to compose a portrait of a randomly-assigned fellow contestant, in which they must not only capture the exterior likeness of their subject but also the ethereal internal elements of what make them unique.

While other series may have had all of the contestants compose realistic portraiture paintings, Work of Art revels in the individuality of the artists in its midst, allowing them to use what ever medium they deem to be fitting. Which means that the audience gets to see examples of abstract painting, three-dimensional installation, silkscreening, photography, and more.

Ultimately, I'm on board for the season, if the premiere episode is any indication of just where the competition is heading. There are some supremely talented individuals in the mix (and a few that left me scratching my head) whose progress I'm excited to follow over the course of the season. It's the rare series that can take us inside the artist's mind but Work of Art manages to do just that... and makes it a thrilling place to be, to boot.

Work of Art premieres tonight at 11 pm ET/PT on Bravo.