There’s something about watching the new Bravo reality competition Work of Art: The Next Great Artist that feels a lot like watching performance art. Not of the Marina Abramovíc variety, mind you. The show follows the formula of Project Runway: Fourteen artists compete with one another to win a solo show at the Brooklyn Museum and a $100,000 prize. From the start, you can spot the archetypes: There’s the pretty one, the green one, the over-the-top-one, the wise one. For their part, the judges (ABOVE LEFT) have some real art-world cred: Salon 94’s Jeanne Greenberg Rohatyn, host China Chow, Half Gallery’s Bill Powers and NY Mag art critic Jerry Saltz (with famed art dealer Simon de Pury, second from left). And just to make it extrasparkly, Sarah Jessica Parker, one of the show’s producers, makes a cameo. It’s all a little surreal and strange, and you just know Andy Warhol would have approved. Wednesdays on Bravo.

The city-slicker-gone-country story is nothing new. But when longtime partners/urban dwellers Brent Ridge and Josh Kilmer-Purcell (ABOVE RIGHT) move to the Beekman Farm in bucolic Sharon Springs, New York, and set out to resuscitate it, the concept seems almost novel. The Fabulous Beekman Boys, a new series premiering on Planet Green on June 16 (9 PM), follows the couple’s adventures as they gamely navigate the landscape and build their organic lifestyle brand, Beekman 1802. (Laid-back Kilmer-Purcell works in the city during the week; ultradriven Ridge farms fulltime.) An emotional farmer named John tends to their 80 goats. A llama named Polka Spot deals in shenanigans. The state of a vegetable garden causes a spat. And while Kilmer-Purcell and Ridge keep their sense of humor, it’s not to say there aren’t a few moments of drama—and not only from the high-strung pigs.




During the peak of the summer festival season, it can be tough to know what to focus on and what to save for next year. The River to River Festival is one to take full advantage of right now. The free, summer-long celebration is concentrated in Lower Manhattan—making the exploration of the neighborhood a breeze—and has an experimental, unfettered feel. Events like the Bang on a Can marathon with its 12 hours of music (June 27) and the movie screenings held on a rooftop plaza offering views of the East River (this year including Auntie Mame and The Muppets Take Manhattan) embody the spirit of the festival—and it’s one not to be missed. Visit rivertorivernyc.com.
 

Governors Island is charming in a Lost-like, forgotten-land sort of way. But you know what it could really use? Art. And this summer, the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council aims to bring it, on a year-round basis, through its artist residency program. Visual and performing artists selected via committee will find space to create and practice on the island inside Building 110 (right near the ferry landing), which was built around 1870 for munitions storage. Sculptor Jong Il Ma, whose large-scale work uses materials like wood, rope and metal, kicks off the season with “Untitled,” on view through July 11. Visit govisland.com.




“It’s hard to imagine the person who wouldn’t experience some form of revelation when seeing one of Schutz’s paintings for the first time,” writes Jonathan Safran Foer in the introduction to Dana Schutz (Rizzoli), a compendium of the Brooklyn-based artist’s weirdly beautiful paintings. It’s hard to describe her work without using the word grisly—her subjects, mostly people, are often in various states of decay or sometimes devouring their own bodies—but what keeps things from veering into Francis Bacon territory is her use of bright, cheery colors and a very obvious sense of humor. Rizzoli, 31 W. 57th St., 212-759-2424; rizzoliusa.com

Few of us are able to spin a simple observation about taxi odors into a 13-page rant, but if you’re Sloane Crosley (author of the twee 2008 best seller I Was Told There’d Be Cake), you not only do this, but also add eight other essays and call it How Did You Get This Number (Riverhead Books). Crosley’s a graduate of the David Sedaris school of writing, but she does have a way with a story, and Number includes great ones about the special hell that is apartment hunting, international traveling mishaps and an especially strange tale of a two-timing ex named “Ben,” who, in order to hide his infidelity from his actual girlfriend, adds Crosley to his phone contact list as “Doug.” Bookstores, citywide

The first retelling of the making of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Fifth Avenue, 5 AM by Sam Wasson (HarperStudio), dips into the mystique behind the classic movie. Regarding the significance of Audrey Hepburn’s role as the freespirited Holly Golightly, the book asserts that the “casting of ‘good’ Audrey in the part of ‘not-so-good’ call girl Holly Golightly rerouted the course of women in the movies….” Perhaps, but beyond the analysis the tidbits shared—from the push-pull relationship between costumer Edith Head and Hepburn to George Peppard’s ability to make everyone dislike him—are golden to any fan of the iconic flick. Bookstores, citywide


With 45 performances at seven local venues over 18 days (July 7–25), the Lincoln Center Festival is a jackpot of the arts. Renowned Japanese theater director Yukio Ninagawa kicks things off with Musashi (July 7–10). The Bill T. Jones/Arnie Zane Dance Company performs a work commissioned by Bill T. Jones for Lincoln Center’s 50th anniversary (July 15–17). A pair of theater productions— including The Demons, a 12-hour production by Peter Stein based on the same novel by Dostoyevsky—plays on Governor’s Island (July 10–19). And music, from The New York Philharmonic to Serbian punk rock, abounds. Consider it a midsummer’s cultural dream. Call 212-875-5456 or visit lincolncenterfestival.org.