There Can Be Only One

Tonight was the finale of Bravo's Work of Art, the three finalists to be reduced to one winner of the big prize. Spoilers to follow.

Since the conclusion of the previous challenge, the three finalists all returned home, given three months and $5000 to make any art they wanted to be part of a small solo exhibition. The episode more or less begins two months into that time, with mentor Simon traveling around the country (Minneapolis, Kansas City, and small town Pennsylvania) to visit those home studios. (a number of the contestants are NYC based, but none of these finalists) Then, thanks to the magic of television, that last month has passed and everyone reconvenes in New York. Simon's gallery/auction house will host these last shows, each contestant given an enclosed space to install their work.

Miles continued with his typical highly conceptualized work. He took cellphone photos of security monitors at a local White Castle. After learning that one of the people (homeless) in those images died shortly after, he makes death a focus of his show. The way he did this was to digitize that photo and blow up tiny details, which were then turned into large geometric abstractions. His installation included some of the cellphone photos and the geometric pieces.

Peregrine's show was a reflection of her approach to art through the series. Her theme was a country fair, though an odd one to be sure. She produced many small cast pieces (heads, small horses, empty frames), drawings (cartoony images of girls vomiting), and photos. The many objects were arranged all through the space, resulting in an interesting colorful environment, with a cotton candy machine to add to the atmosphere.

Abdi's strength through the whole series has been his skills with the figure in two and three dimensions. Coming off his inspiring figure piece in the final challenge, Abdi produces two more oversize figures. These are cast sculptures, very dynamic poses but laying on the floor. Some large figural drawings and paintings in unusual color combinations on the surrounding walls round out the show.

The gallery opens and the large crowd includes the judges, many of the previous guest judges, and most if not all of the other contestants. Everyone seemed impressed. Nothing revolutionary on display, but all three artists put on shows that were comparable to what is found in contemporary commercial galleries and museums today. After some debate, the judges chose Abdi as the winner. Based on what I saw on television, I'd agree with their decision.

I haven't been a fan of Miles's work all along. I had a period in my education process (when I was around Miles's current age) where my works were built from foundations of obscure internal references, but even if the psychology behind them was too obscure for the viewer to understand, I hoped that the colorful and expressionistic style would provide some interest. There was nothing about the black and white digital patterns that Miles produced that gave any feeling of the death theme that he said was behind them, and in my opinion, nothing visually interesting about them. For what seems like the first time, the judges didn't accept his explanation of how the work related to the theme. His efficiency in construction during the challenges was impressive, and likely part of his success with the judges, but his work in the final seems like it should be far more resolved given the length of time available to complete it.

The approach Peregrine took, creating a stimulating environment with the hope of developing an overall mood, can work well when done right. It struck me that she succeeded at least partly in that, but that none of the individual parts were that interesting. The objects themselves had little power outside the combined effect of the installation. For me, that's a major flaw.

Abdi's 2D works were not particularly interesting, but his two sculptural figures had a presence that could be felt through the remove of my tv screen. They are the kind of objects that would attract viewers and encourage them to stick around a while to absorb the impact. Abdi is really just a kid right out of school, his career as an artist can't be properly assessed for many years to come, and as such the sculptures are not something I would think worthy of being in a major museum's permanent collection. But a lot of art spaces could do worse than to put them on display. Of the three finalists, I think Abdi would inspire the least backlash from viewers of the promised show at the Brooklyn Museum, but I'll see if the comments online tomorrow agree with that guess.

Some general thoughts on the whole series-

Like many artists, I'm not convinced that art and reality tv are a good fit. Professional artists do their best work when they can pursue the concepts that interest them, in the medium they prefer, and given as much time as is needed to finish it to their satisfaction. The compromises required by forcing the artistic process into a reality show format almost guaranteed that the resulting art would be below professional standards.

The process of making art is very fascinating to artists, but not to the general public. As such I don't know if we've seen the last of this show. It seemed to me that the network did very little to promote it, giving it only one airing in prime time each week, and 2 or 3 other at odd hours, while some of their other shows would get 15 to 20 hours per week. On the other hand, during tonight's broadcast, there were multiple requests for people to apply for spots on a second season of the show.

Most of the contestants on the show were way too dependent on computers to produce their work. There is nothing challenging or particularly skillful about editing photos on a computer and printing them out on a large format printer. If you want to convince me you are a great artist, you'll have to show me you can do more than pressing a few keys and buttons.

Thus ends the first season of Work of Art and my love/hate relationship with it. If the show comes back for a second season, I'll have to decide if it's worth blogging about again.