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Famous in Eight Episodes? June 2006 By Carlotte Triggs Seeing a constant break down on American Idol or Project Runway is nothing new, but what kind of criticism would it take to bring an artist to tears? For one participant in the new reality series ARTSTAR, the worst insult was "boring." Unmoved by Christian Diekus's representation of a slain Gianni Versace lying on the sidewalk, critic and ARTnews contributing editor Barbara Pollack told him. "Versace himself would die to see a painting as boring as this portray him." Pollack is among the judges for the show, which places New York dealer Jeffrey Deitch in the role of mentor to a group of aspiring artists. For many hopefuls, ARTSTAR was a chance to break into the art world, with the grand prize of a solo show at Deitch Projects drawing a crowd of 400 to its open casting call. "Even with alternative spaces it's still very hard for an artist to get into the system." says Deitch, who, with a panel of five judges that include critic-curators Carlo McCormic and RoseLee Goldberg, whittled the constants down to eight finalists. "If we didn't choose them," he says, "I am not sure they would had ever made it." The winner will be announced in the eighth episode of the series, which airs on Thursday nights at 9 p.m. ET on Gallery HD (part of the DISH network), begining on the 1st of this month. Artstar features the fianlists' group show at Deitch Projects in February, for which Virgil Wong projected an interactive video game onto the wall above a Zenlike garden, and Anney "Fresh" McKiligan created a life-size polar bear. But it was Abigail Deville who achieved market success: her gritty 12-by-11-foot collage Urbanstate was sold to a collector for $12,000. Through there aren't weekly eliminations in Artstar, as in other reality shows, the competition among contestants is no less fierce. "The art world is tough." says Pollack. "People are really surprised to find that out. They think everything goes here, but thera are pretty tough standards."  Artstar finalists with head judge Jeffrey Deitch (seated). |