I’m no art buff but I know what I like. Urban art doesn’t quite attract my attention although I can see the appeal in work by the infamous Banksy. When this weeks task was revealed I honestly thought I would be bored to tears so imagine my surprise when I found myself in convulsions at some of this weeks antics!
Rather than run through the entire show I’ve decided to focus on a few of the participants and the reasons they stood out for me this week, but first a brief overview of the task that lay ahead. Choose two out of five urban artists to represent at a gallery evening. Sell as much work as possible to both private and corporate clients and the team with the highest commission at the end of the task wins.
From the beginning of the series I found that I wasn’t too keen on Adam as a potential winner but he has managed… and this doesn’t happen very often… to make me change my opinion of him entirely! He was an absolute star this week but in a very unexpected way. He played on his inexperience and naivety when looking at and selling the art work and this worked in his favour. He managed to outsell the rest of his team by adapting his market trader skills to become a great art dealer and the customers just lapped it up. Lord Sugar was also very impressed with his adaptability. I can see a potential winner all of a sudden!
Stephen was clearly going for the comedy angle this week and had a good few one liners. After visiting a few of the artists he had developed his own opinion on the character traits required to be successful in such a difficult industry and summed it up beautifully by saying they were ‘nutcases who have a bit of genius in them’. Gabrielle decided to have one of the artists attend and work live from the gallery floor to encourage customers to purchase work. Stephen agreed that this was a great idea but suggested that to add a little mystery; maybe the artist should work in a back room where nobody could see him. This was his take on thinking out of the box. Need I say more?
Tom… what can I say? He constantly looks like he is about to start sobbing his little heart out. Even when things were going his way his eyes sparkled not with joy but with what appeared to be unshed tears, somebody give this man something to smile about please. His quiet persona and deadpan voice made it difficult for him to appear excited about the artists and this did create problems when one of his preferred choices opted to go with the other team. During the sale, a customer who was clearly very interested in a large piece valued at £9000, started talking to Tom and explaining how he had the right spot for it and how he loved it and Tom immediately started to down-sell this potential customer. Pointing out that £9k is a lot to spend on a painting and suggesting that maybe he should go and look at some of the smaller pieces. Bravo Tom, playing a blinder as always.
Toms team lost the task with only just under £200 less profit than his competitors and he gallantly took the blame for choosing the wrong artist. Lord Sugar respected Toms risk taking, despite the fact that it didn’t pay off and spared him the dole queue, choosing to fire Laura instead. Despite pleas claiming that she is an extraordinary sales woman, the figures and her lack lustre performance proved otherwise.
Another week gone and another candidate fired, as we edge ever closer to the final I’m placing my bets on Adam and his cheeky cockney charm. Who would you put your money on?
