Cat Fights, Love Affairs and Tears. This Season of 'Gallery Girls' Will Definitely be a Work of Art

Think the Housewives are the only ones who can dish it out? Think again. This season on Gallery Girls paintbrushes will be flying - and the result isn't pretty.

Bravo's newest peek inside the fashionable and fabulous takes a look inside the NYC art world with seven 20-somethings interning at high-profile galleries in NYC. And if the first episode, which premieres tonight at 10 p.m. EST, is any indication, paintings and pretty don't always mix.

It's Upper East Side vs. Brooklyn, and it's anyone's game. The Upper East Side women are equipped with daddy's money, platinum hair and Jimmy Choos. While the Brooklyn girls come from small towns, wear slinky, thong-showing dresses and deep scarlet lips. Oh, and they all have dark hair.

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Unlike, the Real Housewives, these women are trying to climb the career ladder - and the Eli Klein gallery in Soho is at the center of the tension. Maggie Schaffer, a petite woman endowed with a trust fund from her grandfather who worked at Dupont, is fed up with the way Klein treats her, but she knows she needs the internship. Meanwhile Liz Margulies, the daughter of a world-renowned art collector, has her sights on the same gig.

Though Maggie worked at Christie's during college, she admits: "You find out that everybody else has the same resume you do." As a result, she's stressed out and keeps tossing her hair. (We haven't decided if the hair tossing is endearing or annoying.)

Liz is far less stressed. Armed with a nose stud and Louis Vuitton spiked clutch, this blonde isn't daunted. "People think that I just live off my dad, and they think I'm a brat, or whatever," Liz says. "That's fine with me. Everyone has their own path in life, and this is my path." 

Claudia Martinez and Chantal Chadwick are trying to carve a different path. Both brunette beauties come from small-town, middle-class environments. Their goal? To own a gallery, not work for an executive. So Claudia borrows $15,000 from her family, and they decide to open a clothing-and-art gallery on the Lower East Side called End of Century.

"When I first met Chantal I realized that we were going to be friends because we're both the sort of people who imagine things and just make them happen," Claudia tells the camera. Chantal agrees, though later in the episode biting words fly as the pair clash over money.

Rounding out the group of seven are Kerri Lisa, Amy Poliakoff (who is first seen talking to her daddy on her cell as she takes a bath) and aspring photographer - and our current favorite - Angela Pham. Early in the episode the cast descends on the Eli Klein gallery for an event. The Brooklyn and UES girls make an attempt at conversation, but Angela can't resist quipping at the blondes' expense. The cattiness goes both ways, and Liz unleashes a few jabs of her own when she spots a hole in Claudia's fab-but-falling-apart frock.

Fellow trust-fund baby Maggie bonds with Liz over their mutual hate for the crimson-lipped Brooklyn girls, though tension will likely continue between these two as they vie for Klein's approval.

During the Brooklyn-Manhattan showdown we meet the creepily bubbly Amy Poliakoff who comes off as desperate for Liz's friendship - and also a bit of lush. Kerri Lisa, a middle-class girl from Long Island, fares better. She admits she's had to work for everything in her life. But her classic good looks and sharp instincts allow her to effectively network her way into an Upper East Side internship with art adviser Sharon Hurowitz. Only problem? Amy's already working there, which means she may not be bubbly for long.

Angela is probably the most confident of the bunch. She's making her own way as a photographer and model, and has no qualms about telling her photographer that their dinner "is not a date." Though she hangs with the Brooklyn crew, her parents are both wealthy doctors. This is someone with street smarts who will likely go far.

Like Sex and the City and Girls, the show is very much an ode to NYC. For viewers who know the city well, it feels real in a way that Real Housewives of New York sometimes doesn't. In part because the girls understand, as Kerri says, "you have to hustle here."