The cast members in the various iterations of the mega-popular franchise demonstrate the increasing self-awareness of performance in reality television.
Reality TV
Posted inFilm
Lose Yourself in These Arts & Crafts Reality Shows
From competitive glass blowing to professional LEGO building, stream these creative programs.
Posted inIn Brief
‘Antiques Roadshow’ Mistakenly Values High School Art Project at $50,000
Recently on an episode of Antiques Roadshow, an art appraisal went very wrong.
Posted inOpinion
When Reality TV Imitates Art
Sometimes “homage” is the only way to understand things.
Posted inOpinion
James Franco Plans to Explore Art Through Reality TV
Just when you thought art reality TV couldn’t get any worse, something comes along to suggest otherwise. In two words: James Franco.
Posted inOpinion
Gallery Girls: Cutting Throats, Getting Paid
The advertisement for the new Bravo TV show Gallery Girls is titled “The Cutthroat World of Gallery Girls.” The two-minute preview promises the approved dose of unapologetic reality TV narcissism. Lucky us.
Posted inArt
Work of Art Recap: Going Small Town
Simon comes to visit the home of the bonding couch. He sends the artistes on a train ride! They head up to idyllic Cold Springs, New York, where China greets them in a rather fetching trench coat/dress combo. We expect so much from her.
Posted inArt
Work of Art Recap: Lola Displays Her “Loose Morals,” The Artistes Sell Out
This week, China announces that this week, “it’s time to sell out.” Because no one has “sold out” by going on a reality show, right? Anyways, the challenge is to create art to sell in the street and also display in the gallery. Art and commerce! The challenge rules are a little different: everyone works in teams of two, and they have five hours to combine shopping and studio time.
Posted inOpinion
Work of Art Recap: Jerry Saltz Touches Wooden Balls, Simon de Pury Talks Bowel Movements
Bravo’s massively entertaining (at least to us) Work of Art is back! Or at least it came back last week. Apologies for the lack of a recap; we were too distracted by Sexy Ugo to write anything down. But since he was eliminated, it’s no longer an issue! We can focus on the art! And Jerry Saltz fondling wooden testicles!
Posted inNews
Bravo Responds to Gallery Girls Controversy
On April 8, I wrote a story on Bravo’s Gallery Girls, a new reality show in the making, and the name and concept’s similarity to a popular independent webcomic, also called Gallery Girls. In this post, Bravo responds to the possible conflict and I take stock of commenter responses.
Posted inNews
Does Bravo’s New Gallery Girls Reality Show Rip Off an Indie Webcomic?
There have been rumors that Bravo is developing a new “reality” TV show based around the lives of Chelsea’s young, questionably glamorous gallerinas, but with an April 6 announcement came confirmation and a title: the show in development is named “Gallery Girls,” and will “follow the lives of 6 young, 20-something women that work in New York City’s hippest art galleries.” The announcement was met with an immediate negative reaction — “Gallery Girls” happens to also be the name of a webcomic, created and copyrighted in October 2008 by Chinatown resident Mary Blakemore, that covers much the same territory as Bravo’s proposed show. Is Bravo’s show a rip off of Blakemore’s comic? Or could this be a case of unintentional copyright infringement?