A moan of disappointment rent the steamy Minnesota night when Bravo judges booted homeboy Miles Mendenhall off the TV reality show "Work of Art" after nine episodes in which he had trounced 11 competitors.
A couple hundred art students, faculty and Friends-of-Miles watched the show's finale Wednesday night on an outdoor screen behind the University of Minnesota's Regis Center for Art. The 23-year-old Lakeville native was favored to win the $100,000 prize and a career-boosting show at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, but he ended in third place when the judges declared him to be "an amazing artist" but not the winner.
"I'd definitely do it again if I had the chance," Mendenhall said Thursday after returning from an overnight trip to New York for a glam party at the Brooklyn Museum that reunited most of the show's participants. "There's always the possibility of ramifications -- people not taking you seriously, that sort of thing -- but as long as it allows me to keep growing and making things, at my age it was just something I could not say no to."
A show of paintings and sculpture by winner Abdi Farah, 23, a University of Pennsylvania grad, opens Saturday at the Brooklyn institution and runs through Oct. 17. "I'm such a fan of Miles that I think you guys" -- Minnesotans, that is -- "should be really proud," Farah said in a phone interview Thursday. Second place went to feminist sculptor Peregrine Honig of Kansas City.
Competitors learned their fates in February when filming ended in New York, but were contractually silenced until the last episode aired. Aside from telling his parents the results, Mendenhall kept mum. "Like any secret, it was hard to keep," he said, adding that "the whole thing was just a big circus for me."
In Bravo parlance, "Work of Art" was a "very buzzy show" that attracted a lot of media attention and averaged more than 1 million viewers. It has not yet been decided whether there will be a second season.
Mary Abbe • 612-673-4431
