"Work of Art: The Next Great Artist" Season 1 Quiz

Answer: It was too abstract

To begin this competition, fourteen artists were tasked with creating a portrait of one of their peers; each would be randomly matched with one of their colleagues and they would need to properly represent the personalities of their competition. The winner of the first challenge was Miles, whose attempt at creating a death portrait of performance artist, Nao, proved to be the best-received representation. Amanda, who painted an abstract 'portrait' of Jaime Lynn but missed the mark entirely, was said by one of the critics to have not actually painted a portrait because it was way too unconventional.

Answer: Dated electronics

Coming off their first task, the artists were led through the streets of New York to an electronics graveyard where their goal was to pick some broken electronics and inject life into them via art. This task required a sculptural piece.
During the crit, Miles received yet another bit of acknowledgment by creating an interactive piece; he won immunity once again by winning the task. In the end it was Trong, an installation artist with experience in this particular field, who created a work that the judges thought was too cold and too 'insider' to be appreciated.

Answer: The Time Machine

In challenge three, the artists randomly selected the topics of their next pieces and discovered that they would be creating artwork for one of six Penguin-published classics. These included "The Time Machine", "Dracula", "Frankenstein", "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde", "Pride and Prejudice", and "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland". By the time their works showed in the gallery, a myriad of issues had arisen-- some artists misspelled their authors' names and others just went too far off the mark. John, whose cover for "The Time Machine" conveyed the mystery and intrigue of H. G. Wells' seminal sci-fi work, had his art placed on a Penguin book.

He did not receive immunity in the next task. Judith was eliminated because, according to the judges, her attempt at spelling the title backwards would leave readers insulted.

Answer: Two artists would be eliminated

After visiting an exhibition of Andres Serrano's shock art at Simon de Pury's auction house, Phillips de Pury & Company, the artists needed to make creations that would shock the judges no matter what the approach. While most of these creations were sexual in nature, it was Abdi's racially-charged piece about black youths formed into bombs that had the judges wanting more. To their surprise, the artists were told that two of them would be eliminated-- not just one as usual. One of these was the previous task's winner, John, whose work didn't push any boundaries in its execution.

The second was Nao, whose performance art piece couldn't be explained to the judges.

Answer: Audi

With only nine artists remaining Simon de Pury took them through Manhattan to the Audi Forum in a series of brand-new Audi cars. Upon their arrival they had a half hour to compose themselves and reflect upon their experiences to conceive a new work of art. During the crit, Miles, who slept during his trip and created another piece of art about solitude and sleeplessness, and Jaclyn, who created another piece about the male gaze, were commended for their works.

The win ultimately went to Jaclyn (her first) and she received immunity for the next task. Jaime Lynn's amateurish piece about 'car dancing' ended up spelling her end.

Answer: A public installation piece

In task six, the artists became two teams of four (blue and red) and were asked to collaborate to place installation pieces into an empty corner lot in New York City. Both teams attempted to create highly-accessible pieces which allowed users to interact with their environment.

In the end, the blue team (consisting of Erik, Jaclyn, Miles, and Peregrine) faced the axe for a slightly more confusing, slightly less eye-pleasing creation which, much to their dismay, was aimed directly at Ground Zero. On the red team, the four nominated Nicole the sole winner because it was her concept; this was her first win. Because Nicole was exempt from elimination, she was spared (along with Peregrine). Eric was eliminated due to his inability to work in the team setting.

Answer: Peregrine

In this task, the artists were taken to SoHo to visit the Children's Museum of the Arts. Here, they were told that they would need to use the materials found at the studio there to create a piece that signified their interest in art. Peregrine and Nicole became the two front-runners.

While Nicole made a sort-of excavation of her childhood, Peregrine created a paper-mâché unicorn, cigarettes made of painted chalk, and fake candies to represent her vibrant introduction to the San Francisco party scene.

This was Peregrine's only individual challenge win throughout the challenges at the studio. Ryan became the eliminated contestant since his work was too surface-level and his track record wasn't stellar enough.

Answer: Black/White

For challenge eight, the final six split into teams of two each working together to create individual works that connected with one another under an overarching theme. Mark and Peregrine combined for Heaven and Hell, Nicole and Abdi were Order and Chaos, and Miles and Jaclyn portrayed Male and Female.
The crit proved to be a test for many artists; Miles and Jaclyn shared a win for an interesting take on Male/Female while Abdi was on the chopping block for a poor attempt at Chaos and Mark, who ended up eliminated, created a minimalist portrait for Heaven that didn't wow the judges.

Answer: Connecticut

For the penultimate task, the five artists took a ride to New Haven Connecticut to Sherwood Island State Park so that they could gather natural materials for their challenge which involved incorporating their found objects into a piece. Two of them would be eliminated during this challenge to leave the final three.
Abdi's painting using charcoal and ground, black gravel amazed the judges to give him a second challenge win. Miles also made it to the finale for an investigation of fungus using bleach and a complicated piece of machinery. Peregrine took the third spot for her natural sculpture.
The eliminated contestants were Jaclyn, whose minimalist piece involving a single rock suspended in front of a horizon bored some of the judges, and Nicole, whose work used the most of her material, but failed to impress.

Answer: Abdi

In the final challenge, the final three artists had three months to create enough works for an exhibition at Phillips de Pury & Company and, with Simon to inspire them, they made their way to New York City for the show.
Miles came in third place with his show entitled 'And Two White Castles, That's It', based on digital photos taken by a cell phone of a surveillance camera and then pixelated in Photoshop. The pictures were an obsession of Miles' after one of the patrons on the video died two days later.
Peregrine took second place with a carnival-themed show called 'Fair Game' which included (amongst other things) images of vomiting people, wax children, and a large photograph of two taxidermized fawns.
Abdi became the winner of "Work of Art" season one with his show, 'Luminous Beings', which explored the "beauty of humanity". His show featured images of figures in body bags as well as religious iconography. For the win, Abdi took home $100,000 courtesy of Prismacolor, had one of his pieces auctioned off by Simon de Pury, and took his show to the Brooklyn Museum.