Sometimes it's the quietest pieces that are the most surprising. On the season finale episode of Work of Art, the cameras focused relentlessly on Abdi Farah's sculptures: two life-size male figures, crafted in resin, that emerged from the gallery floor. Certainly, these made for visual drama, of the sort reality TV adores. But, when I saw the works from the last episode in person, it was Farah's paintings that stood out. They showed a sure hand and a skilled use of color (he's inspired by the surreal tones of thermal imaging). His self-portrait Mirror, left, reflected a striking vulnerability.

I confess: I spent much of the show rooting for contestants other than Farah (first Nao Bustamante, then Nicole Nadeau, then Peregrine Honig), based on the work I saw on TV. But I walked away from Farah's exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum feeling pleasantly surprised and reminded of the dictum that you can't really judge a work until you've seen it in person. The paintings aren't genre-busting, but they could hold their own in any group survey of contemporary art.

But how interesting will this show be to a wider universe that didn't follow the show? And how will the museum's reputation fare?

It's too early to gage attendance and it may be impossible to ascertain what a wider museum-going public (outside of very vocal bloggers) would think of this display. On opening day this past weekend, interest was high — especially among young people. Certainly, this was because Farah was in attendance. And his presence attracted packs of teens who arrived to scope out the show and pose for pictures. But I was surprised to hear plenty of art talk, too. (What kind of paint did you use? How are these sculptures held together? What are you working on now?) The whole display made me wonder if there wasn't an art lesson for the young'uns buried in there somewhere. Perhaps if the museum had shown some of Farah's early, cartoon-ish works, it would have illustrated the ways in which artists can mature, even under artificial circumstances.

As for the institution's reputation: As I wrote earlier, I wouldn't want to see the Brooklyn Museum regularly handing over its galleries to commercial television, but as a one-time experiment, I thought it was compelling. In fact, right across the hall from the Work of Art show are the exhibition galleries for Andy Warhol: The Last Decade (see it!!!!). At back, a video loop plays the 1980s MTV program that starred Warhol and a number of era figures. Andy Warhol's 15 Minutes, as the show was called, was achingly bad in parts — self-conscious scenesters hamming it up for the camera. But it had its moments of absurdist performance-art humor. In fact, it wasn't that different from Work of Art, shredding the high and the low into can't-look-away scenarios. A reminder perhaps, that even the base elements of our culture can be totally worth exploring.

Abdi Farah's Work of Art exhibit is up at the Brooklyn Museum through October 17.