Abdi, don't hide. You won! And somehow Peregrine took second and Miles was third.
By Gina Carbone
opus619@gmail.com
Awesome! Abdi Farah definitely deserved to win season 1 of Bravo’s “Work of Art: The Next Great Artist.”
I admit, I was on Team Miles Mendenhall at the start of the season, but Abdi won me over with his quiet, consistent talent and positive attitude.
Abdi's I.E.D. piece on "A Shock to the System" was one of my favorites of the season. He's the only one who made a lasting, meaningful work of art from this challenge. Everyone else just went for cheap sex, as if that's "shocking."
Miles is the prototypical art school kid. Having said that, his work was always more interesting and exciting than anything Peregrine Honig did.
The finale should’ve come down to Miles and Abdi. But at least the right artist won.
***Stream of Consciousness Recap***
The final three get three months and $5,000 to put on a show? Really? $5,000? Did I hear that right? I did. Wow.
Adorable mentor Simon de Pury visits the finalists, just like Tim Gunn on “Project Runway.”
Peregrine’s husband is a jazz musician and horn sculptor. They have a really cool place in Kansas City. She went with a carnival theme for her show. Simon loves her drawings of people vomiting. That’s my problem with this show in a nutshell. People vomiting is seen as impressive.
Abdi’s mom meets Simon at their home in Dover, Pa. I thought he was from Baltimore. No? He said she pushed him like a stage mother. He has a nice space to work in, too. No Christian Siriano closets so far. He was inspired by his last winning piece, the nature challenge. Simon was not dazzled by Abdi’s work. Simon said his technical prowess is his strength and weakness.
There’s snow on the ground in Minneapolis when Simon visits Miles. Everyone on this show has nice big spaces to work in. Whatever happened to the classic starving artist? He grew up making death traps for animals. And last week he wanted to make mustard gas. THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND ABOUT MILES. Just sayin’. Something about a homeless man freezing to death in front of White Castle. Now that homeless man is part of Miles’ art?
Simon likes what Miles is doing so far. So is this a red herring? Simon meets Miles’ parents. It’s like they’re dating on “The Bachelorette.” His family is so white middle-class suburbia. His parents are music teachers. Simon kisses his mother’s hand. I love Simon.
I still think Abdi should've won the first challenge for this arresting portrait of fellow contestant Ryan. Maybe if he had captured Ryan's crazy laugh he would've won.
Back in New York together, Abdi gushes about how much he loves Miles and Peregrine. This is not like “Project Runway” anymore. Usually at this point they are trash-talking.
Ha! Miles said after Simon left his house his mom ragged on him about how poorly he dressed. I bet his mom also ragged on his dad about not kissing her hand every day.
Miles has never been to the Brooklyn Museum, but every time it’s brought up Abdi and Peregrine go nuts. So Miles is above this, too. I used to love him.
Never loved China Chow. Or any of the judges.
Ha! China is excited to see what they made. Miles is excited to see what she’s going to wear. Miles calls her “double whoa.” Nicole is going to be jealous. China looks like a tiny purple version of Big Bird. Little Bird, maybe.
One work from the winning artist will be included in Simon’s art auction house Phillips de Pury & Company.
How is it that these three get along so well? Miles loves Peregrine’s stuff. Peregrine thinks Miles’ stuff is a little too obscure.
Elderly White Castle patrons? Really? Did he get their permission or does that not matter?
Is Miles chewing on cotton candy during the show? OK, a lot of people are.
Ryan is back!
Sarah Jessica Parker is in the house! She’s the executive producer of the show. She seems to be drinking the Miles Kool-Aid too.
“Do you see the face of Jesus?” “No.”
“It looks like art, but what is he saying?”
Peregrine’s stuff continues to do nothing for me.
Except for the cotton candy. That’s her best thing.
“I think they’re all vomiting.” Yes. Me too.
Abdi has sculptures on the floor. Humanity has been covered up in so many ways.
“Makes you want to cry.” “It’s really moving.”
SJP is really so proud … of what? She doesn’t seem to complete the thought.
Abdi’s mom is very proud of him, though!
A conceptualist, feminist and someone taking on issues of race? Are those their boxes? Just because Peregrine is a woman and Abdi is black?
Cell phone video camera photos of an alcoholic homeless man who died. Seriously.
David L. seems to love it. The judges are gushing.
Here's Peregrine's fawns image. It is eerie, but striking. It has impact. If art can be analyzed at all it's for sincere emotional impact as opposed to "look at me!" shock value. Definitely her strongest piece in the finale, but I still don't think she earned her shot to be there. Also, lose the vomiting chicks. And that horse's "energy" did nothing for me.
Why would Abdi’s work be about Haiti? “It kept shifting my mind. … it’s like a film, the narrative kept changing.” Bill Powers thought it was “art school”? This guy annoys me.
Taxidermied unborn twin fawns???
That’s Peregrine. Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn’s feels the love from it.
Upon reflection, this is the most memorable piece in the show and it definitely makes me want to look again, and look closer. It has a haunting power. But the rest of her work leaves me empty.
The judges are gushing again. Uh oh. I’m worried. But Powers thinks Peregrine could’ve edited her work. Thank you for mentioning the people vomiting as a not-so-great thing.
Jerry Saltz, possibly my least favorite judge, says Miles has grown enormously. They are more pretentious than the artist/contestants, by far. Why has Saltz wanted Abdi out of the show for so long?
OH MY GOD, Saltz calls Abdi dramatic and self-indulgent? Have you met Miles yet?
Peregrine. Ha! “And look at that horse. That horse has a lot of energy coming off of it.” Please.
Miles is third place? Wow. That I did not see coming. Peregrine had better not win…
THANK YOU! Abdi wins. But Peregrine shouldn’t have been in the finale at all, never mind second.
Now Abdi gets a solo exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum and a cash prize of $100,000. Did Abdi and Peregrine take first and second because they gushed more about the prizes and the guest artists and seemed more into the whole thing than Miles? Miles has always appeared to be above everything.
Man, this show has a lot of issues. But I like it. I hope they find 14 (or more) fantastic artists for season 2. Make it work!
6 comments
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August 12, 2010 at 1:14 am
scott
I completely agree with everything you said. Abdi was by far the best and Paregrine did not deserve to be in the finale; and I CAN’T STAND Jerry Saltz.
Well narrated.
August 12, 2010 at 12:11 pm
JG
Maybe the reason that you can’t stand Jerry is that you have not read him- he is one of the most important art critics of our time. He is not here to be liked, he is here to be read. If you do not like his writing, well that is a different story entirely.
August 12, 2010 at 9:38 am
Tim
Your impressions are extremely superficial. Just because a piece is unusual does not mean it’s bad. You’re like a 15 year old running through a modern art gallery making fun of all the “weird stuff”. Why don’t you try to discuss the work and perhaps justify your opinions intelligently instead of just blankly stating that you didn’t like it.
August 12, 2010 at 10:36 am
Gina Carbone
Can’t I just say their works of art didn’t work for me?
Sometimes weird stuff really is just weird stuff (vomiting girls, exploiting a dead homeless man as an art project), but I see your point and agree that unusual doesn’t always — or even often — mean bad. Unfortunately I think most of this season gave us the usual kind of bad. But I added a photo of Peregrine’s fawns image and some of my thoughts. This is a classic case of unusual, but not bad.
August 12, 2010 at 12:07 pm
JG
You obviously have a lot of passion, but this is TV and has nothing to do with the actual art world. Artists work VERY hard to get solo shows in major institutions. While Abdi is a ‘good guy’ and a strong budding artist, the ‘reality’ of things is that the only person who deserved to get this show at the Brooklyn Museum would have been Peregrine. You see, museums do not judge an artist’s likeability factor, they judge the artists work and what they have done before. Peregrine’s art is already owned by THREE major museums and she IS on the way to becoming someone who could support a solo show. Unlike Project Runway, which is based on creativity and marketability, the Art World is not a popularity contest nor is based on the person with the most potential. This show did nothing for the Art World but did a lot to dupe the general public into believing that ‘anyone’ can get into it!
August 13, 2010 at 4:06 pm
Kristin Meek
I agree wholeheartedly with JG. I think choosing Abdi was a move of political correctness on the judges’ part. That’s not to say that his last work of art. and the one with the black mens’ angry heads as bombs weren’t both really good and thought provoking. The museums and galleries in New York have a well known bad reputation for not including african american’s art amongst all the other contemporary art….they used to be always designated as “African American Art” and considered separately, which is not only stupid, but also racist. This has changed a little bit, but not enough. They also definitely don’t get a fair shake when it comes to one-man shows. This may seem politically incorrect, but I think that the real judges (whoever they may be, since it was obvious to me that the ones on tv seemed to be rooting for Peregrine) may have thought to themselves something along the lines of “featuring this young African American artist whose art focuses primarily on racial and economic prejudice and injustices is a topic that needs to be explored, finally, in a prominent museum. To not choose Abdi may have triggered a huge, awful P.R. situation. They may have had a realistic fear that not choosing Abdi would have seemed like they were avoiding those issues ‘and hard subjects, yet again. So they chose the safe option that covered their own arses. I felt that Peregrine’s art was far more skillfully done, and had a sweet, almost otherworldly (dare I say angelic) energy that seemed to channel a presence of the afterlife and/or heaven. I would really like to own one of her pieces, especially the horse, or one of the pictures of girls vomiting. That seemed so funny and quirky. Her artwork had many different levels and things going on that you wanted to spend time enjoying and thinking about, whereas Abdi’s art was a kind of in your face, singular note. Although moving, it wasn’t very complex or super well done. I know my opinion will probably make some people angry, but it is something to think about. As for Miles, I agreed with the judges that his art was far too distanced and conceptual and lost any sort of humanity….but I suppose that may have been the point, but it seemed uninteresting in the end. Maybe if he had taken it to more of an extreme, it would have been more powerful. He’s an extremely smart guy, but he seems to be letting his own issues with his emotions and feelings cut off the engagement with his art and with the viewer. It didn’t feel like it meant anything to him, and if that was his purpose, he should have really pushed that to such an extreme so as to provoke new, perhaps even more uncomfortable feelings for the viewer. Instead we were left just floating in a sea of black and white squares, an unsatisfying experience. So in other words, Peregrine good…all other contestants bad…(just kidding)
I liked the show a lot, but I have to say that Simon was my favorite by far…I wish I could be friends with him or work with him….he’s an incredibly vibrant, feisty guy! I’ll bet he loved playing little practical jokes on people when he was growing up! And perhaps even now! If he’s reading this….Simon, you made the show….your energy, enthusiasm and pure passion were so fun to experience. Your impish personality and style and sparkle and twinkliness in your eyes made me wish you had been my artistic mentor! The contestants were lucky to have you to inspire them. I’m hoping for a show where you are the main star, calling all of the shots and whisking people off on art adventures of your choosing. Of course, it would be vital to the show’s success if I were a part of it, but we’re just in the planning stages! 
Cool yer jets, speedracer! Just kidding!