Just when you thought that reality tv surely couldn’t produce another American Idol style spin-off, Jeffrey Deitch of Deitch Projects dreamed up Artstar, television’s first and only “Who wants to be a famous artist?” playoffs. It must be said that if anyone were to pull such a stunt Jeffrey Deitch is the most appropriate — perhaps even forgivable? — offender. He certainly knows how to stay firmly tongue-in-cheek while selling to the masses (At the 2005 Armory Show he lured buyers by transforming his gallery’s booth space into a Deitch-branded bakery selling limited-edition sweets).
Artstar, as you can probably surmise, follows a group of aspiring (mostly young) artists as they compete to become THE NEXT BIG THING. While no one gets voted off the island in this show, a panel chaired by, among others, Paper magazine's Carlo McCormick and art critic David Rimanelli, plays the time worn role of mixing barbed criticism with benevolent support in the way only a team of reality tv mentors can.
If you don’t find whole idea of watching art celebutants compete for the limelight distasteful (or if its just distasteful enough for your taste) you’ll have to get some mega-powered cable access to get the show, which is only available on the obscure Gallery HD channel.
While the show may only be in its first episodes on air, it seems that it may not be too difficult for attentive viewers to divine the winner. For a hint, just check which of the eight contestants had a solo exhibition at Deitch Projects late last year.
Hmm, they seem to even have a Wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artstar
Comment by Robert Addison — 6/7/2006 @ 12:01 am
[…] • Art as spectator sport: As Maggie, our intrepid NYC correspondent for the ECP blog, writes about Jeffrey Deitch’s new reality-tv show Artstar, NEWSgrist reports on the Iron Chef of art–Iron Artist, a joint project of Cabinent and P.S.1. Based on the Japanese competitive cooking show, the event includes two 45-minute art duels. The first two battles pit Jude Tallichet against Olav Westphalen and Big Room (Julian Laverdiere and Vincent Mazeau) against Type A (Adam Ames and Andrew Bordwin); they must create an art object in real time using materials on hand. Commentators, including our pal (and MASSMoCA curator) Nato Thompson, give play-by-play color, and critics will write on the resulting works, which will also go ondisplay at P.S. 1. […]
Pingback by Off Center » Centerpoints 2.1 — 6/7/2006 @ 10:27 am
Actually, I believe Deitch was approached to be involved by Artist and Series Executive Producer Christopher Sperandio. Admittedly his gallery is one of the most appropriate places in the country but this is not “Oswald” acting alone as you seem to be saying. And comes from an Artist with a track record of public art projects Kartoon Kings/Chris Sperandio. Just for the record…
Comment by Bad at Sports — 6/7/2006 @ 11:26 am
Wow, the wikipedia article reeks of shameless self-promotion.
As for the Iron Artist battle, I am a huge fan of Iron Chef (the original Japanese version that is) so I’ll have to see if I can make it out to P.S. 1 this weekend.
Comment by Maggie — 6/8/2006 @ 2:58 pm