Work of Art’s Weakest Artists Remain

by Paddy Johnson on July 1, 2010 · 27 comments

Abdi Farah's "I.E.D." (Improvised Explosive Device)

BRAVO promised to send a Work of Art screener yesterday so I could view it in Canada but it never arrived. As such, readers won’t see a recap of this week’s “shocking” art episode. Judging by everything I’ve seen and read though, this episodes only further proves the complaining observations of gallery extras prior to the show’s airing: All the interesting artists were being eliminated. Speaking to this, SPOILER ALERT: John Parot and Nao Bustamante got the axe this week. Shock and awe artist Andrea Serrano was the guest judge.

Neither artist produced particularly strong work, which puts them on par with just about everyone else in this week’s episode (Peregrine Honig’s drawings were the only works that seemed passable to me). There goes the show’s two most legitimate artists.

Just so it’s clear, Work of Art’s weakest artists are, Ryan Schultz, Eric Johnson, Jaclyn Santos, Abdi Farah, and Mark Valesquez. None of them have been eliminated yet and this distortion ripples its way through the media. Yesterday evening NYMagazine critic Jerry Saltz described Abdi’s floor-displayed black heads with wicks as full of “magic and presence.” Yeah right. We’re heading for a grim grand finale with Abdi and Valesquez. If Bravo’s track record remains in tact, Peregrine Honig will be eliminated next week.

Work of Art’s Weakest Artists Remain