‘Work of Art’ recap: The wheels come off

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

In Wednesday night’s episode of Bravo’s ‘Work of Art,’ we learned that artists living in New York City are somehow immune to car culture just because they don’t drive. The fact that New Yorkers spend their walking hours dodging traffic was somehow lost on several of the contestants.

So some struggled with finding inspiration in the challenge for Episode 7: creating a work of art from pieces of a deconstructed Fiat, with a $25,000 prize on the line. Performance artist and automotive designer Liz Cohen was the guest judge.

One artist who didn’t struggle was Sarah, who quickly skinned a Fiat seat and mounted the material for a sort of schematic/Rorschach test.

Though Dusty and Young couldn’t repeat their victory of last week, both created good enough works to move on to the next episode.

(Spoiler alert: Stop reading now if you don’t want to know who won and who was eliminated in the episode.)

Michelle attempted a playful car personification that mentor Simon de Pury suggested would have been better off in the earlier children’s challenge. Michelle responded to his critique with an equally arts-and-crafty car face. In a feeling of déjà vu, Lola whined and complained as she searched for an idea. The judges also sensed déjà vu in her finished artwork, saying that Lola was repeating herself and not improving in the process.

The five women were all called back for the judging. Michelle’s happy/sad car was deemed the biggest failure and she was sent home, though Lola is clearly on the cusp if she can’t find a new direction next week.

Both Sara and Sarah were the judges’ favorites. In the end Sara was the winner for her work called ‘Backfire,’ with a clever use of an exhaust pipe and stuffings from a car seat. It was a well-earned victory for Sara because until then she’s limited herself to painting and was pleased with the results of the physical challenge. She said she’d use her winnings to pay for graduate school.

RELATED:

‘Work of Art’ recap: Street art and graffiti in Brooklyn

‘Work of Art’ recap: All the news that fits

‘Work of Art’ recap: Child’s play gets serious, with Sarah Jessica Parker

-- Sherry Stern