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.
