MiniCap: Work of Art finale

Recaps

By SexyPanda | Thursday, December 22, 2011 | 6:16 am | 25 Comments
Tagged: , , , ,
Posted in: Recaps

Greetings and salutations, ‘Gasmii!  It’s time to talk quickly about the Work of Art finale before I get started on the main recap.  You’re ready?  I know you are.

woa minicap finale

Pretty telling that Kymia and Sara J had their work featured together. But where is Young’s?

That was the quickest hour of television in my recent memory. Wow, that time just flew by.  The first segment was Simon’s visits to the three artists at home, meeting their families and touring the studios to get an idea of what they’re working on for the finale. We met Young’s mother and boyfriend in Chicago, Kymia’s boyfriend in Manhattan, and Sara J’s boyfriend in Brooklyn.  And each artist had an “oh shit” moment when Simon said their current direction was no good. I mean, there was more to it than that, but we’ll talk about that later today or tomorrow when I get the full recap goin’.

Then the artists all arrive at Simon’s gallery to set up their final gallery show. Kymia has some antics with pedestals made to the wrong specs.  I think it gets resolved–honestly, I got distracted at that moment with checking Twitter to see what others were saying about the finale.

And then the final gallery show!  I am BLOWN AWAY with Kymia’s piece for her dad, the boat filled with dirt, with the shadows of feet on the sail. I instantly started crying, much like I did when I saw Abdi’s “Baptism” for the first time.  It was so powerful.  I loved her show, and I really liked Sara J’s show. Young’s came across to me as pretty boring. (And I swear that’s not my personal bias.)  (I swear!!!)

The judges loved it all, but at the end of the day, they can only really love one enough to award the grand prize. And the prize goes to….Kymia!!!  I KNEW it!!  (Check my recap of episode 2, the “movement” challenge. In my P.S., I still call her Quinoa, but I also call her a dark horse.  And the dark horse won!)  I am THRILLED that Kymia won, and I’m bummed that it appeared, for drama’s sake on the ol’ tee-vee, that Sara J came in third. But at least Young didn’t win.

woa kymia won

Come back for the full recap!! And in the meantime, catch up on some recaps of previous episodes here and here. See you soon!

About

Time for an update! I used to be a tall, athletic editor who lived on the East coast. Oh, I still am, only now I've gained back all the weight I lost, which changes my life-tone quite a bit. Now that I'm married, I have a lot less time to watch Bravo and Food network. We usually end up watching Big Bang Theory reruns ("all of my friends, all of my friends, all of my friends") or Wipeout. Or WWE Raw. Wow. How life has changed!  Join me as we chat about my breast friend Patti Stanger and her love minions. Or maybe we'll talk about art during Work of Art. Whatever we're watching, don't be shy--tell me what you think!

25 Comments

  1. 1
    vallegirl vallegirl
    Posted December 22, 2011 at 8:38 am

    On these kinds of shows a lot of time editing will include a comment by the guest judge that pretty much gives away the winner. Last season they featured David LaChapelle really being moved by Abdi’s “Home” painting and this season Kaws was only featured praising a piece from the winner’s show. Because up until then I really couldn’t tell who had won. For reasons that had nothing to do with the work they produced.

  2. 2
    2muchbravo
    Posted December 22, 2011 at 9:35 am

    I am soooo glad Kymia won. I woke the cats up when I cheered and clapped. I thought Sara could’ve taken it too. Young’s was pretty lame (and that’s not just cuz I’ve wanted to slap him all season). I mean hanging shirts up and putting pictures and a shrine to your dead father? Ok, I’m not totally heartless. My mom died a slow death to cancer, too. But, he was simply shooting for the sympathy angle. I was frankly disappointed that he didn’t do anything that displayed more of his talent. I thought it was bullshit that the judges said he had come so far. His final show didn’t say that to me. The girls both did pieces in many different types of media. They displayed more range. But,again, very happy for Kymia. Just as an aside, she reminds me of Andrea Martin from SCTV.

  3. 3
    trixiebell
    Posted December 22, 2011 at 11:54 am

    She does look like Andrea Martin! Also, I really liked the kneeling figure sculpture that Simon convinced her not to show.

  4. 4
    crankyguy crankyguy
    Posted December 22, 2011 at 12:00 pm

    I can see Andrea Martin, too. I haven’t watched the show yet, but I’m not gonna complain about spoilers in MiniCaps like I have seen some people do elsewhere on this site, because spoilers don’t bother me and never have. I’ve always been incredulous at people who read ANY kind of recap, and then whine about spoilers. I’m glad to know Young didn’t win–that’s the main thing and the wonderful thing.

  5. 5
    lestermaddox
    Posted December 22, 2011 at 12:03 pm

    All during this episode I kept thinking Kymia looked like Cher. Something about her mouth… then part way through, my 17 year old said – “how come she reminds me of Cher?”. Like minds and all, I suppose.

    I was so glad that Kymia won. She really deserved it. I thought her show showed a wide range of talent and knowledge of materials. I liked the sculpture with the gem eyes that Simon hated. I was kind of hoping she would leave it in despite his critique.

    Sara’s show was so much better than Young’s. His was disjointed and not really created art – in that he didn’t actually draw or sculpt or paint or manipulate the photos at all. He just hung up his laundry and patched on pictures of his dead Dad to win the sentimental vote. And what was up with that tower thing? It just really made no sense at all.

  6. 6
    S-Natch S-Natch
    Posted December 22, 2011 at 12:28 pm

    I was just reading the comments from last week’s recaps (my trip to NYC put me behind), and I must add to the whipped cream vodka discussion. Chocolate wine (amazing – tastes like a YooHoo) plus whipped cream vodka shaken together and served in a martini glass. For extra decadence, dribble a little chocolate syrup down the sides of the glass before pouring. YUMMM!!

  7. 7
    S-Natch S-Natch
    Posted December 22, 2011 at 1:38 pm

    PS – I totally agree about Kymia’s boat painting – breathtakingly powerful. I knew that Young could not win, though – his collection contained nothing to sell at Simon’s auction house! Funny faux pas for the panderer, no?

  8. 8
    SexyPanda
    Posted December 22, 2011 at 1:57 pm

    re: spoilers: up until last week (or was it just this week?), I always played coy in the minicap so as to not spoil. BUT, if you’re looking at a minicap of a show, it’s because you’re in a hurry to talk about it. I assume that’s because you watched it. But maybe I’ll go back to being coy. I dunno.

    re: Simon’s auction: as soon as I saw Kymia’s boat piece, I knew she HAD to win so Simon could sell that piece at auction. My DVR cut off the end–do we know if that’s the one he’s going to sell? It MUST be.

    Oh yeah, I remember having that chocolate wine a year or two ago! I got it somewhere cheap and enjoyed it for a bit! It would definitely mix well with whipped vodka!!

  9. 9
    Zbird
    Posted December 22, 2011 at 2:04 pm

    Having experienced my beloved (and formerly completely healthy) mother’s slow, agonizing death to pancreatic cancer, I get where Young’s idea came from, but it just wasn’t art. It was a personal shrine to his father, period. And I have to say it wasn’t even artistically curated, which I thought was Young’s thing. I get that it was emotional to him (and apparently to China) but it left me empty — he did nothing to bridge his loss to the viewer’s own experiences. He just hung up a bunch of shirts and snapshots. I didn’t even see anything “sellable” there, which was part of the purpose of the exhibit, no? I was so disappointed that he placed above Sara J, who clearly had substance, intelligence, and beauty in her work far beyond what Young showed.

    But I’m thrilled for Kymia! Her work was full of emotion and impact. It’s so interesting to me to see the parallels between the subject matter for Kymia and Young, and to see how an ARTIST treats the subject matter to pull in her viewer — to evoke powerful emotions, to connect…truly awesome. Truly beautiful.

  10. 10
    themiki
    Posted December 22, 2011 at 2:52 pm

    Yeah, I’m with most of the rest of ya. I refuse to believe that Young’s exhibit was better than Sara’s. That girl made a truly amazing show, and the third place finish was a load of horseshit. I do think Kymia’s final works were pretty amazing though, and she earned the hell outta that prize. I just thought the first two were clearly her and Sara, with Young somewhere way way back in the dust.

    And yes, that sailboat painting was a masterpiece.

  11. 11
    maryedith
    Posted December 22, 2011 at 3:13 pm

    I am so happy to see that all of you agree that Kymia deserved to win, because I was blown away by her show and I thought her technical ability was head and shoulders above what the other two showed. I say that because I think Sara has equal technical ability but it wasn’t as evident in her show because she was working outside her usual media. I think Kymia did a great job of both pushing herself and developing what she was good at. One thing — I would have found the sailboat even more impressive without the feet. I thought it was eerie and beautiful enough on its own and the feet were kind of…obvious?

  12. 12
    itchy
    Posted December 22, 2011 at 3:21 pm

    I appreciate that the minicap only spoils the show IF you read it — as long as the winner’s not announced in the headline, it’s your own fault if you spoil it for yourself.

    Although it became pretty obvious who the winner would be, because Kymia really was head and shoulders above the other two. She completely changed my opinion of her. I wasn’t blown away by the sculptures though (except for the headdress, which was so great, especially since it looked like one of her drawings come to life). But her drawings are fantastic.

    Sara J’s stuff was just … okay. I like the bird cage a lot, but I’ve seen similar installations to that, so it didn’t strike me as new. The rest of it wasn’t very thrilling. But I like her a lot.

    I believe Young tried to use his father’s death to win the competition. But the installation just looked sloppy and art schoolish. And yeah, there’s nothing there to auction.

  13. 13
    itchy
    Posted December 22, 2011 at 3:24 pm

    I agree about the feet, maryedith. To me, they cheapen the impact a bit. Maybe they’re just too present?

  14. 14
    vallegirl vallegirl
    Posted December 22, 2011 at 3:29 pm

    With regard to the spoilers, I think posting them in the minicap is fine but the first line or so of each comment also appears on the main page, so when the first thing someone posts is the winner and YAY! it can spoil someone who was avoiding the minicap.

    And with that YAY! Kymia! Sara’s strongest piece in her show was the performance but I don’t think the supporting pieces did it justice. She could have still had the birdcage and the woman dressed up in the costume collecting anonymous confessions, but she should have set up a small seating area for people to view the video and then presented the confessions, and maybe illustrated some in triptychs or small frames.

    Still, it was better than Young’s. Young’s was an homage to his late father but it didn’t really encourage anything more than relating to losing a parent. I’ve lost both of mine so I relate, but what more does it say? What more is there to think about? Kymia took losing her father, and her secular upbringing, to consider what the afterlife would be like. She created open-ended pieces that related to death and loss but didn’t say “this is my dad.” Young’s piece, like so many of his other ones, was to insular.

  15. 15
    Sarahthered
    Posted December 22, 2011 at 8:00 pm

    I’m disappointed my fave didn’t take it (Sara J!) but, like everyone else posting here, I’m glad Young didn’t take it.
    I knew he was doomed when early in the episode, he said confidently “I’m the favorite to win”… sorry, Young, you just fucked yourself with that statement. The producers wouldn’t have him saying that & then winning. They do this on Project Runway too- some overconfident fool proclaims they’re DEFINITELY going to win, then they don’t.

  16. 16
    2muchbravo
    Posted December 22, 2011 at 9:49 pm

    Yeah, @sarahthered. Young was getting pretty obnoxious at the end there. He was looking really pissy when they announced that Kymia won. Anyone else would have at least given her a smile and hugged her. I lost whatever respect I had for him after last night’s show.

  17. 17
    nestofvipers nestofvipers
    Posted December 22, 2011 at 10:53 pm

    Young’s work just made me angry. It felt so cheap to sell your father’s last days and personal items out just to win a show. I just didn’t see art there and honestly I feel bad for his mom because at some point he’s going to be hanging her bra’s in a showroom. Sara had some beautiful, delicate work and I think if she’d just fleshed out some of the confessions a bit more she may have knocked the judges out of their Young induced zombie coma (I mean 3rd? REALLY?!) I loved Kymia’s drawings and the headdress sculpture. The boat was gorgeous and THAT is a artful, classy way to honor a dead loved one.

  18. 18
    maryedith
    Posted December 22, 2011 at 10:58 pm

    I have to say that I didn’t see Young looking pissy when Kymia won, and it’s not like I wasn’t looking for it. I thought he was quite gracious about it. It was the only time I’ve had a non-negative reaction to him.

  19. 19
    Sarahthered
    Posted December 23, 2011 at 8:31 am

    @nestofvipers, I thought the same thing about Young’s show. He needed Simon to tell him there needed to be emotion in his gallery show to create meaningful art. They flipped through Young’s photo journal of his Dad’s last days, which looked like a very personal thing, and the minute Simon commented how moving it was, Young decided to use it for his project.
    Also, the judges warned him in the beginning of the episode that he needed to not get into his PC thing too much, and all he could do as a reaction to that was build a big platform & think about moving it around different locations to photograph. There’s an artist (I can’t remember the name, but he’s a photographer, I think) who did a whole series of photos with a red couch in different locations, with different people sitting on it. Sorry if I’m not describing that correctly but I think you might know what I mean.
    Kymia annoyed me during this whole series; I felt like she was always playing the victim and whining about something. Her illustrations were beautiful, but she didn’t show any range beyond that. She didn’t stretch or challenge herself with other media for her show. I felt Sara worked hard to try different things beyond drawing; she did performance art, interacted w/the public, sculptures, and used her real life experiences to create personal pieces. She mentioned during the course of the series that she had struggled with bulimia, alcoholism, and addiction, and took those personal experiences to give meaning to her work. I don’t think she dwelled on any of those issues; I admire how she didn’t play the victim regarding those issues.
    Young and Kymia both played the dead parent card (I’m going to put this out there- my dad died an active alcoholic when I was 15, and for many years after I played that card too, so I know what I’m talking about). It’s a cheap, lazy way to get sympathy; no one wants to hear that and think much beyond, “Oh, poor thing, they lost a parent, it must be so hard”. You can play this fact out b/c people stop thinking once they hear that, and just have their own personal reaction. I think if China hadn’t gotten so emotional right away, she could have objectively seen that Young’s show wasn’t strong.
    A pro-Kymia comment- that work she did with the boat & shadow on the sail was truly haunting. I hope Simon gets a good bid on it; she deserved every bit of praise for that one piece. I just don’t think her show was strong as a whole.

  20. 20
    Sarahthered
    Posted December 23, 2011 at 11:35 am

    I liked reading Jerry Saltz’s recaps of the show (on Vulture) but had to stop towards the end b/c of his constant undeserved championing of Lola as a meaningful artist. I did go back (mistake!) and read his finale recap, and yet again, he highlights Lola as an artist who will go on to have a long, meaningful career as an Important Artist. JERRY, HOW COULD YOU? If I see some stories in the news about an affair between him & Lola, I would be 100% not surprised. I always thought Jerry was a great critic, but this season, my respect has dwindled (I’m sure this would mean a lot lol).
    I wanted to see if he had anything else to say about my Sara, and although he said on camera something like “Outstanding” during her crit, he’s not terribly kind in his written remarks. He says he hears she’s attending grad school, and she can continue to learn. He also says Abdi, last season’s winner, should have been sent to grad school, and Peregrine was the True Artist.
    Also, he called Kymia’s drawing of the boat w/shadowed sail “hokey”.
    Fuck. You. Jerry.

  21. 21
    SexyPanda
    Posted December 23, 2011 at 12:18 pm

    Yeah, I’ve been reading all his Vulture pieces, too, and I bristled at the exact same things you noted here. I’m sure he has much more experience than I do, as senior art critic and having behind the scenes access to all of this, but I STILLLLLLLLL think he can’t see beyond his wang. But I’m not Jerry, so who knows.

    I told the boyfriend that we needed to take a trip to NYC to see Kymia’s show before it goes away!!

  22. 22
    crankyguy crankyguy
    Posted December 23, 2011 at 1:56 pm

    Jerry is sporting a boner for Lola? I thought he was gay after watching him lust after Miles last season.

  23. 23
    2muchbravo
    Posted December 23, 2011 at 4:07 pm

    Maybe Jerry’s little wang swings both ways.
    He reminds me of a pervy little accountant I know who’s about 70. Ick!

  24. 24
    Buffy
    Posted December 23, 2011 at 10:57 pm

    YAY! Kymia was my favorite from day one!! She radiates something special that even comes through the television, and that’s without even mentioning her art. Heart! that girl is all heart and i love her and i loved her boat piece for her dad and the dream that inspired it. And what a metaphor that is!! the fact that she took her (literal) dream and had the faith and awareness to create a piece from that that would pretty much go on to win her the show. That’s all fate or destiny or something bigger than the world we know. I love it!!!
    I also thought Sarah J’s big piece was beautiful, and i thought Young finally created something that bored everyone else the way he has bored me all season. Vindication.

  25. 25
    itchy
    Posted December 24, 2011 at 1:33 am

    When Kymia mentioned her dad died in a jetski accident, first image I had was Fonzie jumping the shark. So I don’t think she was tossing that one out just for sympathy.

    The only explanation for Saltz’s believe in Lola is that he has some sort of financial interest in her. Probably he bought one of her collections of odds n’ ends.

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