In Bravo’s cheesy world of fake “Real Housewives” and loudmouth matchmakers, there is a ray of sunshine so brilliant, it nearly obliterates all the hatred and hateful people that populate many of their other shows.
It’s called “Work of Art: The Next Great Artist,” a little show that has a loyal and cultured audience — in other words, the kind of people for whom the network was originally founded.
The producers of “Work of Art” have managed to take something that is never a big draw (excuse the unintentional cheesy pun), art, and have made it into something so enlightening and, yes, exciting that it’s positively magical.
Even if you haven’t been watching the series, you can still tune into the season finale Wednesday night to see the three finalists — Brooklynite, 26-year-old Sara Jimenez; Chicagoan, 28-year-old Young Sun Han; and Manhattanite, 30-year-old Kymia Nawabi — compete in the last round for a prize of a one-person show at the Brooklyn Museum, $100,000 from Fiat and the cover of Blue Canvas magazine.
Hosted by the knowledgeably sophisticated China Chow, the judges are senior art critic for New York magazine Jerry Saltz, art auctioneer and gallery owner Simon de Pury, and New York Gallery owner and literary art contributor Bill Powers.
The contestants have been whittled down from 14 artists over the season to just these three — each then given money and three months to prepare a gallery show on their own.
They were visited just once during this three-month period by de Pury who gave them advice and criticism that was both right and withering. In fact, his lone visit to the contestants caused each to completely revamp their shows — with less than a month to go.
The final three-artist show is in de Pury’s gallery, and each artist’s final installation is breathtaking, exciting and exhilarating. The opening night is filled with last year’s winner, art critics, celebrities and, most importantly, buyers in the New York art scene.
To watch these emerging artists watch guests discuss their work in front of them is at times wrenching and at times great.
One of this season’s most controversial contestants who was eliminated weeks before, an artist who goes by the name Sucklord, handed Jerry Saltz a tiny action figure he’s made of him and says to his face, “It’s kind of a thing in the toy world, to make a glow-in-the dark toy of bald, Jewish art critics.”
I watched the finale screener up to the last minute — but the winner announcement was edited out. I have a feeling I know who wins.
The artists are risky, scary, brilliant and crazy — and they do it all for their need to make art — which is what makes this reality show actually real.
Don’t miss it. I sure won’t.