Bad at Sports

This week, Bad at Sports hits the road and heads north to Sheboygan and Kohler, Wisconsin — where art, industry, and community collide. We drop into the John Michael Kohler Arts Center (JMKAC) and the Kohler Arts/Industry Residency program to see how a small Midwestern town sustains one of the most ambitious intersections of art and manufacturing in the country. Michelle Grabner and Jodi Throckmorton. From toilets to terracotta, brass casting to bathroom design, Kohler has been quietly incubating radical artistic practice for decades, embedding artists in its factories while JMKAC builds a civic platform for art environments, vernacular traditions, and contemporary experimentation. We talk with artists, administrators, and community members about what makes this ecosystem work — and why Sheboygan might just be the weirdest, most wonderful art town in America. John Michael Kohler Arts Center @jmkac Kohler Arts/Industry Residency Kohler Co. @kohler Name-Drop Jodi Throckmorton - https://curatorsintl.org/about/collaborators/7932-jodi-throckmorton Michelle Grabner - https://www.michellegrabner.com/ John Michael Kohler Arts Center (JMKAC) — https://www.jmkac.org/ Kohler Arts/Industry Residency — https://www.jmkac.org/arts-industry/ Kohler Co. — https://www.kohlercompany.com/ Art Preserve (JMKAC’s satellite museum) — https://www.jmkac.org/art-preserve/ Arts/Industry Alumni (sampled in conversation): Beth Lipman — https://www.bethlipman.com/ | @beth_lipman Ann Agee — https://www.annageestudio.com/ Jeffrey Clancy — https://jeffreyclancy.com/home.html Ashwini Bhat — https://www.jmkac.org/exhibition/ashwini-bhat-reverberating-self/ Pao Houa — https://www.jmkac.org/exhibition/pao-houa-her-the-imaginative-landscape/ Lily Cox-Richard — https://www.jmkac.org/exhibition/water-sprouts-and-remains-an-unfolding/ Sheboygan community — https://www.townofsheboyganwi.gov/

This week we sit down with Amanda Ross-Ho, whose large-scale sculptures, staged environments, and uncanny translations of domestic and studio life have made her a vital presence in contemporary art. Recorded in Chicago around her latest exhibition, the conversation spans everything from monumental t-shirts to the politics of labor, and from the intimacy of the studio to the spectacle of the art fair. Ross-Ho reflects on how she mines personal and collective archives, the humor and seriousness in her work, and the ways she uses scale to destabilize the familiar. We also talk about teaching, generational shifts in art-making, and what it means to sustain a practice over the long haul. Listen & Follow Amanda Ross-Ho - https://hammer.ucla.edu/made-la-2025/amanda-ross-ho @amandarossho Name-Drop Amanda Ross-Ho — https://www.miandn.com/artists/amanda-ross-ho | @amandarossho Mitchell-Innes & Nash (Gallery) — https://www.miandn.com | @miandn_gallery Cherry and Martin (Gallery) — https://www.artforum.com/news/los-angeless-cherry-and-martin-gallery-closes-237707/ MoCA Cleveland — https://www.mocacleveland.org/ | @mocacleveland Whitney Biennial — https://whitney.org/exhibitions/the-biennial | @whitneymuseum Art Basel — https://www.artbasel.com/?lang=en | @artbasel Frieze Art Fair — https://www.frieze.com/fairs/frieze-london | @friezeofficial Los Angeles art scene / UCLA — https://www.arts.ucla.edu | @uclarts EXPO CHICAGO - https://www.expochicago.com/ Chicago Architectural Biennial 6 - https://chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/

This week, we print big or go home. Bad at Sports cast their eyes to New York from the safe confines of the Chicago Architectural Biennial booth at EXPO 2025 to talk with the legendary Two Palms studio in the guise of Alex Slattery. If you’ve ever stood slack-jawed in front of a monoprint the size of a small car or a woodblock cut so large it needed its own logistics plan, chances are Two Palms was behind it. Since the 1990s, David Lasry and company have been redefining what printmaking can be—working with artists like Carroll Dunham, Elizabeth Peyton, Mel Bochner, Cecily Brown, Terry Winters, Chris Ofili, Dana Schutz, Richard Prince, Chuck Close, Jeff Koons, and yes, even channeling the ghost of Andy Warhol. From delicate gestures to total madness with ink and paper, the studio’s collaborations are as unpredictable as they are radical. We talk risk, scale, failure, and discovery—the alchemy of artist–printer collaborations that make Two Palms a force in contemporary art. Along the way we wander through stories of impossible woodblocks, ink disasters turned into triumphs, and why printmaking might just be the most punk medium of them all. So pour a glass, sharpen your barens, and get ready to nerd out about the future of prints. Two Palms https://www.twopalms.us/ @twopalmsnyc Name-Drop Carroll Dunham — https://www.presenhuber.com/artists/carroll-dunham#tab:slideshow Elizabeth Peyton — https://www.davidzwirner.com/artists/elizabeth-peyton Mel Bochner — http://www.melbochner.net/ Cecily Brown — https://gagosian.com/artists/cecily-brown/ Terry Winters —https://www.terrywinters.org/ Chris Ofili — https://www.davidzwirner.com/artists/chris-ofili/survey Dana Schutz — https://www.davidzwirner.com/artists/dana-schutz Richard Prince — http://www.richardprince.com/ Chuck Close — https://www.pacegallery.com/artists/chuck-close/ Jeff Koons — https://www.jeffkoons.com/ Two Palms — https://www.twopalms.us/ Marilyn Minter — https://www.twopalms.us/featured-works/marilyn-minter Stanley Whitney — https://www.twopalms.us/featured-works/stanley-whitney Ana Benaroya — https://www.twopalms.us/featured-works/ana-benaroya David Paul Lasry — https://www.nga.gov/artists/21067-david-paul-lasry Alex Slattery — https://www.instagram.com/alexslattery/ EXPO CHICAGO - https://www.expochicago.com/ Chicago Architectural Biennial 6 - https://chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/ Institutions that love these prints: Whitney Museum of American Art — https://whitney.org/ MoMA — https://www.moma.org/ The Met — https://www.metmuseum.org/

Duncan MacKenzie and Ryan Peter Miller drive up to the Dunn Museum in Libertyville, IL to talk with legendary comics painter Alex Ross. Known for Marvels, Kingdom Come, and decades of redefining superhero realism, Ross reflects on his career trajectory, his education at the American Academy of Art, his influences (from Neal Adams to Dave McKean), his early breaks with Now Comics and Leo Burnett storyboarding, and his transition into large-scale mural projects for Marvel and DC. The conversation ranges from comics history, realism in superhero depictions, variant cover economics, the physicality of superheroes, to America’s appetite for dystopian narratives versus a return to the “pure Superman.” Ross is candid, funny, and deeply reflective about the comics medium, painting, and storytelling. Name-Drop List Artists & Writers Alex Ross — https://www.alexrossart.com/ | @alexrossart Neal Adams – https://nealadams.com/ George Pérez – https://www.tcj.com/george-perez-1954-2022/ Jack Kirby – https://kirbymuseum.org/ Dave McKean – https://www.davemckean.com/ Neil Gaiman — neilgaiman.com | @neilhimself Chris Ware – https://art21.org/artist/chris-ware/ Jim Lee — https://www.dc.com/talent/jim-lee @jimlee Todd McFarlane — https://mcfarlane.com/ @toddmcfarlane Erik Larsen — https://imagecomics.com/creators/erik-larsen @eriklarsen1138 John Tobias (Mortal Kombat) – https://www.mobygames.com/person/3326/john-tobias/ Tim Bradstreet — https://www.splashpageart.com/artistgalleryroom.asp?artistid=83 @timbradstreet Frank Casey (Ross’s Superman model) – chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://news.wttw.com/sites/default/files/article/file-attachments/The%20process_Ross%20at%20work.pdf Institutions & Companies Dunn Museum (Libertyville, IL) — https://www.lcfpd.org/museum/ @lcfpd Marvel Comics — marvel.com | @marvel DC Comics — dc.com | @dccomics American Academy of Art (Chicago) — Leo Burnett (advertising) – https://dev.leoburnett.com/ Now Comics (Chicago, defunct) Eclipse Comics (defunct) FASA (publisher of Shadowrun, BattleTech) – https://shop.fasagames.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=68 Mortal Kombat franchise — https://www.mortalkombat.com/en-us @mortalkombat Pop Culture References Kingdom Come (DC) – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_Come_(comics) Marvels (Marvel) – https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/the-marvels/umc.cmc.6nb1ii3n99o7rewjyq8whcsuu Shadowrun RPG – https://store.catalystgamelabs.com/collections/shadowrun Vampire: The Masquerade (White Wolf) – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire:_The_Masquerade The Boys (Amazon Prime) – https://www.primevideo.com/detail/The-Boys/0KRGHGZCHKS920ZQGY5LBRF7MA Invincible (Image Comics / Amazon) – https://www.amazon.com/INVINCIBLE-SEASON-1/dp/B08WJN83XZ Peacemaker (HBO) – https://www.hbomax.com/shows/peacemaker-2022/a939d96b-7ffb-4481-96f6-472838d104ca Brightburn (film) – https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/brightburn/umc.cmc.4pkvqa1b6mf30wtx66vor37fq Image: John Weinstein

In Part Two of our late-night conversation, Bad at Sports digs deeper into the remarkable trajectory of Kenny Schachter. From law school dropout to autodidact philosopher, from Sotheby’s bidder to artist and teacher, Schachter traces the unlikely path that brought him into the heart of the art world — a place he insists remains strangely conservative despite all its pretenses of progress. The discussion moves between personal history and systemic critique. Schachter recounts the role of art in surviving trauma, loss, and addiction, and why surrounding himself with works by others has been both solace and education. He reflects on the stubborn conservatism of the market, celebrity crossovers from Johnny Depp to Julian Schnabel, and the tension between wanting freedom and the systems that resist it. For Schachter, art is both a lifeline and a way to comment on the world’s chaos — a practice rooted in generosity, curiosity, and contradiction. This episode captures him at his most reflective and most biting, moving from humor to vulnerability and back again. Highlights • Schachter’s first encounters with Twombly, Rauschenberg, and Frankenthaler at the National Gallery. • The shock of Andy Warhol’s estate sale in 1988. • Dealer-to-dealer hustling as an unlikely entry into art. • Why “there are no rules” is his best definition of being an artist. • The paradox of an art world that markets rebellion but runs on tradition. Names Dropped Andy Warhol I.M. Pei, https://www.pcf-p.com/about/i-m-pei/ Chase Manhattan Bank, https://www.jpmorganchase.com/about/art-collection Christie’s, https://www.christies.com/en Sotheby’s, https://www.sothebys.com/en/ Phillips Auction House, https://www.phillips.com/ Patrick Drahi, https://www.artnews.com/art-collectors/top-200-profiles/patrick-drahi/ Leonard Lauder, https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/leonard-lauder-sothebys-klimt-matisse-1234751922/ The Pritzker family, https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/pritzker-art-collection-sothebys-breuer-1234751864/ Elaine Wynn, https://www.christies.com/en/events/the-collection-of-elaine-wynn Wyatt Kline, https://unframed.lacma.org/2014/01/28/contemporary-friends-acquire-ten-new-works-by-artists-from-around-the-world Alex Burns, Felix Reuter (Ryder), https://felixreuter.bandcamp.com/ Guerrilla Girls, https://www.guerrillagirls.com/ Old Friends Gallery, https://www.oldfriendsgallery.com/ David Letterman, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Letterman The Suburban, http://www.thesuburban.org/

This week on Bad at Sports, Duncan MacKenzie and Ryan Peter Miller find themselves in Chicago with curator Bianca Bova and the indefatigable Kenny Schachter — artist, writer, teacher, collector, and provocateur. What begins as a conversation about Schachter’s exhibition at Old Friends Gallery — featuring chicken-assisted artworks and bronze casts forged in Slovenia — quickly expands into a meditation on the art world itself. Schachter reflects on his collaborations, his obsession with foundries, and his refusal to keep resources secret. The group debates the zero-sum mentality of the art market, why artists sabotage themselves, and how absurd projects (sometimes with actual chickens) can be the most serious acts of art-making. Equal parts candid and comedic, the conversation cuts across auctions, art fairs, and the everyday realities of teaching. Expect reflections on generosity vs. gatekeeping, the fragility of the art system, and what it means to make art that is more conceptual than commercial. Highlights • Chickens as collaborators and muses. • The foundry in Slovenia that casts Rudolf Stingel’s panels. • Why keeping fabricators secret is a sign of weakness. • Auctions as democratizing, even anarchic, art spaces. • The necessity of art in a divided and compassion-starved world. Names Dropped Kenny Scharf, https://kennyscharf.com/ Kenny Schachter, https://www.kennyschachter.art/ Bianca Bova, https://www.biancabovagallery.com/ Billy Connolly, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Connolly Rudolf Stingel, https://gagosian.com/artists/rudolf-stingel/ Tobias Rehberger, https://pedrocera.com/artists/tobias-rehberger Paul Thek, https://whitney.org/exhibitions/paul-thek Giacometti, https://www.moma.org/artists/2141-alberto-giacometti Jerry Saltz, https://nymag.com/author/jerry-saltz/ Cy Twombly, https://cytwombly.org/ Jasper Johns, https://whitney.org/artists/653 Robert Rauschenberg, https://www.rauschenbergfoundation.org/ Joan Mitchell, https://www.joanmitchellfoundation.org/joan-mitchell Helen Frankenthaler, https://gagosian.com/artists/helen-frankenthaler/ Georgia O’Keeffe, https://www.okeeffemuseum.org/ Andy Warhol, https://www.warhol.org/ Joseph Beuys, https://walkerart.org/collections/artists/joseph-beuys Sigmar Polke, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/sigmar-polke-2213 John Cage, https://www.johncage.org/ Devendra Banhart, https://devendrabanhart.com/ Brad Pitt, https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2022/09/19/brad-pitt-debuts-his-sculptures-in-finland Cindy Sherman, https://www.hauserwirth.com/hauser-wirth-exhibitions/cindy-sherman/ Robert Longo, https://www.robertlongo.com/ Julian Schnabel, https://www.julianschnabel.com/ Old Friends Gallery, https://www.oldfriendsgallery.com/

This week, Bad at Sports reconnects with one of Chicago’s most beloved curators and cultural instigators Ox-Bow School of Art’s Executive Director, Shannon Stratton. From founding Threewalls to serving as Chief Curator at the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) in New York, Stratton’s career is a masterclass in weaving together artists, audiences, and institutions. We talk about building spaces for experimental practices, sustaining feminist and craft-centered discourse, and what it means to return to Chicago after reshaping the curatorial conversation nationally. Stratton dives into the ethics of hospitality, the politics of craft, and why sometimes the most radical thing you can do is set the table. Recorded live at EXPO 2025 in the loving space provided by the Chicago Architectural Biennial 2025 Name-Drop Shannon R. Stratton - https://www.shannonraestratton.com/about Threewalls — https://three-walls.org/ Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) —https://madmuseum.org/ Haystack Mountain School of Crafts —https://www.haystack-mtn.org/ MCA Chicago — https://mcachicago.org/ Textile Society of America —https://textilesocietyofamerica.org/ The Center for Craft — https://www.centerforcraft.org/ Naomi Beckwith (curator) — https://www.guggenheim.org/about-us/staff/naomi-beckwith Julia Bryan-Wilson (art historian) — https://arthistory.columbia.edu/content/julia-bryan-wilson Jenni Sorkin (art historian) — https://arthistory.ucsb.edu/people/jenni-sorkin EXPO CHICAGO - https://www.expochicago.com/ Chicago Architectural Biennial 6 - https://chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/

This week Bad at Sports goes full meta, talking about talking about art. We sit down with Ben Davis, National Art Critic for Artnet News and author of 9.5 Theses on Art and Class, to unpack the state of art criticism in 2025. Davis has been one of the sharpest voices charting the relationship between culture, economics, and media—at once insider, outsider, and always keeping his mom in mind. From the collapse of traditional publishing to the weird vacuum left by social media, Davis doesn’t just describe the cracks in the system—he names them, theorizes them, and points to where something new might emerge. We talk ZIRP (zero-interest-rate phenomena), the rise of click-driven media, what AI means for art, and why communities matter more than markets. Listen & Follow Ben Davis on Artnet News - https://news.artnet.com/search/Ben+Davis @benstoppable https://www.benadavis.com/ Name-Drop Artnet News — news.artnet.com https://news.artnet.com/search/ Brooklyn Rail — brooklynrail.org AI / ChatGPT — openai.com/chatgpt Neil Young — neilyoungarchives.com Slayer — slayer.net Image care of... https://c4aa.org/our-research/interviews/ben-davis/

Recorded live from the Chicago Architectural Biennial’s booth at EXPO Chicago, Bad at Sports tailgates with artist Edra Soto and designer Dan Sullivan—Chicago’s unofficial art-world power couple. Soto unpacks her first solo art fair booth at Engage Projects, where monoblock plastic chairs, airbrushed T-shirts, and Puerto Rican vernacular architecture collide with memory, loss, and celebration. Sullivan, founder of Navillus Woodworks, riffs on craft, Ikea hacks, and the business of making high-end furniture while moonlighting as Soto’s collaborator and fabricator. "Dan helps." What starts as a playful conversation about paparazzi, beer coolers, and chairs spirals into a meditation on grief, Puerto Rican cultural identity, and the design politics of everyday objects. Along the way, we hit Bad Bunny, the Bear restaurant, euphemisms around death, Catholic ritual, and the French (yes, the French). We close out with music talk—Sullivan on his bands Nadnavillus and Arriver—and a standing invitation for Bad at Sports to share the stage. Death, dying, lawn chairs, and punk rock. Welcome to EXPO. Artists & Designers Edra Soto Instagram: @edrasoto https://edrasoto.com/home.html Dan Sullivan / Navillus Woodworks Instagram: @navillus_woodworks https://navilluswoodworks.com/ Ryan Peter Miller Instagram: @ryanpetermiller http://ryanpetermiller.com/ Miguel Aguilar (Kane One) Instagram: @kane_one_ kane-1.comhttps://www.3arts.org/artist/miguel-aguilar/ Susan Gomes George Ortiz Instagram: @georgeortizphotography https://www.georgeortizphotography.com/ Bad Bunny Instagram: @badbunnypr https://www.vox.com/today-explained-podcast/459095/bad-bunny-puerto-rico-residency-history Institutions / Venues / Events Engage Projects Instagram: @engageprojects https://www.engage-projects.com/ Chicago Architecture Biennial Instagram: @chicagoarchitecturebiennial https://chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/ EXPO Chicago Instagram: @expochicago expochicago.com WBEZ Instagram: @wbezchicago wbez.org/about 105.5 FM Lumpen Radio (WLPN‑LP) Instagram: @lumpenradio lumpenradio.com The Franklin (project space) Instagram: @thefranklinoutdoor (site-run by Edra Soto & Dan Sullivan)https://thefranklinoutdoor.tumblr.com/ABOUT The Bear restaurant (Sullivan furniture) This refers to the TV show The Bear on FX, Art Basel Instagram: @artbasel artbasel.com The Armory Show Instagram: @thearmoryshow thearmoryshow.com NADA (New Art Dealers Alliance) Instagram: @newartdealers newartdealers.org Color Factory Instagram: @colorfactoryco colorfactory.co Electrical Audio (recording studio) Instagram: @electricalaudio Tenement Museum (NYC) Instagram: @thetenementmuseum https://www.tenement.org/ Cultural Figures & References Yolanda, Lucetta, Anita (Puerto Rican celebs) Gilberto Santa Rosa Lil’ Kim, Lil’ Romeo, Neil Young, Slayer, Jeff Koons Bands & Music Navilus (Dan Sullivan’s project)https://navilluswoodworks.com/ Arriver (art-metal band) image courtesy of Engage Projects

In this lively and insightful episode, Bad at Sports hosts a roundtable conversation with Dirk Denison (Founding Board Member of the Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB)), David Salkin (Designer, Curator, and Board Husband), and Jennifer Armetta (Executive Director of the CAB). Together, they reflect on the impact and legacy of the Chicago Architecture Biennial and its shifting forms of experimentation, urbanism, and civic engagement. The episode explores the curatorial frameworks of CAB, the roles of education and public space, and how architecture becomes a lens through which cities reimagine themselves. Names Dropped: - Dirk Denison - David Salkin - Jennifer Armetta - Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB) - Venice Architecture Biennial - CAB 5: This is a Rehearsal - CAB 6: Shift - Chicago Architecture Center - Graham Foundation - Studio Gang - MASS Design Group - Jeanne Gang - Open House Chicago – Burnham – Frank Llyod Wright – the ID at IIT – Mies – Louis Sullivian - Professor Landis - Rahm Emmanuel

We meet Paul Pfeiffer inside his retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago to talk about ghosts, spectacle, and the metaphysics of sports. Known for erasing athletes from footage and turning stadiums into stages of worship, Pfeiffer opens up about boxing as performance, the haunted loop of fandom, and building media rituals in the Philippines. Also: parrots, Deion Sanders, lip sync monks, and the death of the moment. Names dropped: Deion Sanders - https://www.instagram.com/deionsanders/?hl=en Manny Pacquiao - mannypacquiao.ph The Bible (yes, the text) - https://thesatanictemple.com/pages/hail-satan?srsltid=AfmBOoqTwkeDSDwxOmlvVLQX8QQduw8ehfzt3sYzUMFMvJO-_ym35hOg Tom Gunning - https://cms.uchicago.edu/people/tom-gunning Joshua Oppenheimer - https://cream.ac.uk/people/josh-oppenheimer/ DJ Spooky (Paul Miller) - djspooky.com Gina Osterloh - ginaosterloh.com Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago - mcachicago.org Biennale of Sydney - biennaleofsydney.art Contemporary Art Gallery Vancouver - cagvancouver.org

We sit down with curator Rachel Adams to talk about institutional evolution, artists as infrastructure, and how curatorial practice shifts between museums and biennials. Rachel reflects on working with artists like Cauleen Smith, Liz Magic Laser, and Beatriz Santiago Muñoz, the power of slow curation, and why she’s drawn to hybrid spaces that defy the market. Along the way: phantom titles, artist contracts, Minneapolis moments, and a manifesto in a box of ice cream bars. Cauleen Smith cauleensmith.com Liz Magic Laser lizmagiclaser.com Beatriz Santiago Muñoz lima.art Candice Hopkins indigenousnewyork.org Nato Thompson https://www.natothompson.com/about Christina Vassallo columbusmuseum.org Sarah Schultz mplsart.com Alison Hearst themodern.org Andrea Andersson riversinstitute.org Franklin Sirmans pamm.org Mary Jane Jacob https://never-the-same.org/interviews/mary-jane-jacob/ Independent Curators International (ICI) curatorsintl.org image: Asad Raza, Orientation, 2022. Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Field Studio.

We sit down with a delegation of Irish curators—Michele Horrigan (Askeaton Contemporary Arts), Michael Hill (Temple Bar Gallery + Studios), and Mark O’Gorman (The Complex)—to unpack what it means to build artist-centered institutions on an island without a commercial art market. From weather-worn banana warehouses to smoke-machine-filled nightclubs, these curators share space-making tactics, post-colonial entanglements, and the challenges of caring for artists without selling to collectors. They’re in Chicago for EXPO and bringing the heat—with nothing but friendship, found neon, and deeply site-responsive shows. Also: fluorescent hands, oak horns, grant hustle, and Duchampian office doors Names Dropped: Lilian Pettinicchi / Lilian Peto – No official site found Anya McBride – Devin Mays – https://regardsgallery.com/artists/devin-mays/ Haynes Riley / Good Weather – https://www.goodweather.llc Becky Nahum (ICA) – No profile confirmed Stephanie Smith – https://curatorsintl.org/about/collaborators/4391-stephanie-smith Kate Sierzputowski – https://katesierzputowski.com Amanda Rice – https://www.instagram.com/p/Cx2lfLmL_Qk Frank Wasser – https://www.instagram.com/frankwasserartist Briony Dunne – https://www.instagram.com/bryonymaydunne Olga Balema – https://www.clearing-gallery.com/artists/olga-balema Hannah Hoffman Gallery – https://www.instagram.com/hannahhoffmangallery Bridget Donahue Gallery – https://www.bridgetdonahue.nyc John Latham / Flat Time House – http://www.flattimeho.org.uk Brian Doherty – Tom Friedman – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_Friedman Duchamp (Marcel) – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Duchamp The Smiths (band) – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Smiths Website/IG Handles (if available or mentioned): · Askeaton Contemporary Arts / @askeatonarts · Temple Bar Gallery + Studios / @templebargallery · The Complex Dublin / @thecomplexdublin · Good Weather / @goodweathergallery

Live from Andrew Rafacz Gallery, Chicago In this intimate, laughter-filled episode recorded live at Andrew Rafacz Gallery, Duncan and Ryan sit down with artists Jaqueline Cedar and Josh Dihle on the occasion of their concurrent solo exhibitions. The conversation traverses everything from Duchampian bathroom jokes to model train nostalgia, parenthood, masculinity, and why drawing still matters. We dig deep into Cedar's intimate, narrative-rich figure paintings and Dihle’s large, toy-like sculptural paintings, both brimming with color, play, and strange tenderness. Along the way, we explore the value of humor, discomfort, labor, scale, and why both artists moonlight as gallerists—Cedar with the roving Good Naked Gallery and Dihle with events at Color Club and The Sugar Hole ice cream shop. It’s a heartfelt meditation on art, joy, burnout, and why we keep making. Name Drop List & Related Links Jaqueline Cedar Website | Instagram Good Naked Gallery – Instagram Josh Dihle Website | Instagram Color Club – Website | The Sugar Hole Andrew Rafacz Gallery Website | Instagram Artists & References: Roger Brown Suellen Rocca David Hockney Henry Moore Pieter Bruegel the Elder Duchamp’s “Étant donnés” Julius Caesar Gallery (Chicago)

Live from the tailgate lounge at Chicago Architectural Biennial 6's booth at Expo Chicago, Duncan and Ryan welcome Joey Orr, the newly appointed Deputy Director and Chief Curator of the MCA Chicago. In this densely brilliant and surprisingly hilarious conversation, Orr discusses what it means to steer a contemporary art institution in an era of deep social complexity, political polarization, and shifting museum ethics. We cover everything from the social life of objects to the lore of performance documentation, and even pitch a game show based on the varied memories of Chris Burden’s early MCA performance. Orr reflects on social practice, audience authorship, and why curators are public servants—not VIPs. We get deep into what it means to be a meat sack in space, how to radicalize museum engagement, and why reenactments may just be the key to future institutional magic. This is art talk that grinds, gropes, and glows in the dark. No hot dogs, just conceptual fireworks. Joey Orr – Deputy Director and Chief Curator at MCA Chicago IG: @joeyorr13 Bio: https://joeyorr.com/about/ Chris Burden – Performance artist Wiki: Chris Burden John Cage – Composer and performance artist Wiki: John Cage Resource: John Cage Trust Dick Higgins – Intermedia artist and Fluxus co-founder Wiki: Dick Higgins Alison Knowles – Fluxus artist IG: @alisonknowlesartist Wiki: Alison Knowles Mary Jane Jacob – Curator of public art and socially engaged practice Wiki: Mary Jane Jacob Bio: SAIC Faculty Page Pablo Helguera – Artist and educator working in socially engaged art IG: @pablo_helguera Website: pablohelguera.net Book: Education for Socially Engaged Art Diana Taylor – Performance theorist; author of The Archive and the Repertoire Profile: NYU Performance Studies Book Info: Duke University Press Naomi Beckwith – Curator, formerly at MCA and Guggenheim IG: @naomibx Article: Guggenheim Chief Curator Announcement MCA Chicago (Museum of Contemporary Art) Website: mcachicago.org IG: @mcachicago School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) Website: saic.edu IG: @saic_news High Museum of Art (Atlanta) Website: high.org IG: @highmuseumofart The Louvre Website: louvre.fr IG: @museelouvre Queens Museum Website: queensmuseum.org IG: @queensmuseum Fluxus – Movement reference MoMA: Fluxus Overview - https://www.moma.org/collection/terms/fluxus#:~:text=Founded%20by%20George%20Maciunas%20and,to%20integrate%20art%20and%20life.

Broadcast live from Rice University (yes, in Houston), this episode of Bad at Sports brings together the curator of comics and cartoon art at the Billy Ireland Cartoon Library and Museum, Caitlin McGurk, and the Richmond-based zine publisher and comics obsessive behind Bubbles Fanzine, Brian Baynes. We dive deep into McGurk’s new book Tell Me a Story Where the Bad Girl Wins: The Life and Art of Barbara Shermund, a biography and art book reclaiming one of the first women to work for The New Yorker. McGurk details her decade-long research process, Shermund’s punk rock lifestyle in the 1920s, and the bittersweet reclamation of her uncredited legacy. In the second half, we sit down with Brian Baynes, who champions comics culture from the DIY trenches. He shares his mission behind Bubbles, how it draws on punk zine culture, why it stays in print forever, and how he's preserving overlooked voices from India to local comic shops. From feminist cartoon history to cassette-label archaeology and typewriter ribbon obsession, this one’s a love letter to the weird, wonderful, and un-archived margins of visual culture. Names Dropped: Caitlin McGurk – Curator at Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum, author of Tell Me a Story Where the Bad Girl Wins Brian Baynes – Publisher of Bubbles zine Bubbles Zine – Indie comics fanzine Barbara Shermund – Early New Yorker cartoonist and subject of McGurk’s book Spain Rodriguez – Underground cartoonist who created Granny McGurk The New Yorker – Home of Shermund’s work in the 1920s–40s Rea Irvin – The New Yorker’s founding art director Harold Ross – Founding editor of The New Yorker Art Students League of New York – Where Shermund studied California School of Fine Arts (now San Francisco Art Institute, recently closed) – Shermund’s California alma mater Hearst Newspapers – Syndicated Shermund’s comic strip Maximum Rocknroll – Long-running punk zine Punk Planet – Chicago-based punk zine, aesthetic cousin of Bad at Sports Soft Boys / Archer Prewitt – Musician and cartoonist interviewed in Bubbles Ludwig Wittgenstein – Language philosopher referenced by Baynes Cameron Arthur – Cartoonist behind The Hidden Islands Anand Radhakrishnan – Likely creator of Stories from Zoo (not named directly, based on context) Billy Ireland Cartoon Library & Museum – At Ohio State University, world’s largest cartoon archive Overlooked No More (Barbara Shermund) – NYT’s obituary project

This week on Bad at Sports, Duncan MacKenzie and Ryan Peter Miller cruise their way into a murder mansion fever dream with Jake Nickell and Lance Curran, two of the minds behind Threadless—the Chicago-based t-shirt empire that helped invent crowdsourced artwear before we’d marketed terms like “creator economy” or “drop ship.” What begins as a nostalgia trip (setting the stage for how the business developed through DIY screenprinting and forum culture) quickly becomes a deep dive into ethics, art careers, AI disruption, licensing chaos, and why having your work sold in Hot Topic definitely still counts as making it. We unpack: The founding of Threadless on a secret art/code forum Shifting from screen printing to digital on-demand Working with artists, bands, and comic book creators Parody vs. IP theft (and WTF the DMCA is) Building safety and anti-hate moderation into a global platform Why Chicago still rules And why Punch Nazis continues to be a top seller Along the way, we also discuss vending machines, Karl Marx, Cheetos, the Four Seasons Total Landscaping press conference, and what happens when art school turns into a startup. And, importantly, how capitalism can be leveraged using Foucauldian power for artists—rather than for their subjugation. Jake Nickell is the founder of Threadless, and a pioneer in crowdsourced design and artist-first merchandise models. He started Threadless in 2000 while still in art school. Lance Curran is the VIP Accounts Director at Threadless, a longtime champion of artist partnerships, muralist collaborations, and weird comic book projects. He joined the company in 2005 and once described the warehouse as “the Foot Clan layer from Ninja Turtles.” Names Dropped: Jake Nickell Lance Curran Threadless Tony Moore The Walking Dead Hot Topic Hope for the Day The Trevor Project Redbox Columbia College Chicago Four Seasons Total Landscaping Nathan Fielder DisneyWarner Bros.Universal StudiosMarvel Harvard Business School Case Study on Threadless Silicon Valley Chicago Art Scene

Recorded live at the Comics Without Borders / Sans Frontières gathering at Rice University, this episode dives deep into international comics publishing, aesthetic risk-taking, and how underground networks drive a truly global comics culture. David Schilter, publisher and editor of Latvia’s acclaimed kuš! comics, joins us alongside Pedro Vieira de Moura, Portuguese critic, writer, and co-founder of the bookstore/gallery Mundo Fantasma. We talk about how a small-format anthology changed Latvian comics forever, why RAW magazine changed Pedro's life, and how comics have always been a place for outsiders to find their people. It’s about pornographic comics, lipstick in mirrors, misnumbered anthologies, institutional resistance, aesthetic weirdness, bookstores as public educators, and why no one in Latvia is publishing Maus. Guest Links: kuš! comics (David Schilter): https://www.komikss.lv Pedro Vieira de Moura: http://www.laboratori.net Mundo Fantasma (Porto bookstore/gallery): https://www.mundofantasma.pt Names Dropped: Art Spiegelman – Creator of Maus, influence on RAW magazine: Art Spiegelman on Wikipedia Barbara Shermund – queer comics history: Barbara Shermund Basil Wolverton – Iconic MAD magazine illustrator: Basil Wolverton on Wikipedia Charles Burns – Known for Black Hole and RAW magazine: Charles Burns on Wikipedia Gary Panter – RAW magazine artist, punk comics icon: Gary Panter on Wikipedia Al Jaffee – Fold-in master at MAD Magazine: Al Jaffee on Wikipedia Frank Miller & David Mazzucchelli – Daredevil and Batman: Year One: Frank Miller David Mazzucchelli Moebius – Legendary French comics artist: Moebius on Wikipedia Neil Adams, George Pérez, Jim Lee – Scott McCloud – Author of Understanding Comics: Scott McCloud Rafael Bordalo Pinheiro – Early Portuguese cartoonist and comic pioneer David B. – French cartoonist and co-founder of L’Association: David B. on Wikipedia Adrian Tomine – Acclaimed alternative cartoonist: Adrian Tomine Marjane Satrapi – Creator of Persepolis: Marjane Satrapi Brian Baynes – Publisher of Bubbles Zine: Bubbles Zine

In this episode, we sit down with architect, editor, and curator Florencia Rodriguez, Artistic Director of the Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB) 6. We dig into the ideas shaping this year’s edition—titled “Shift: Architecture in Times of Radical Change”—and her approach to curating a biennial that centers transformation, public space, and critical imagination. Rodriguez reflects on her journey from Buenos Aires to Chicago, the founding of PLOT and SOILED, and her evolving relationship to criticism as both practice and provocation. We explore how writing and curating can act as architectural tools, shaping not only discourse but the environments we inhabit. We also soft-launch Bad at Sports’ partnership with CAB 6—an evolving audio collaboration that will track the biennial’s voices, urgencies, and ideas throughout the year. Mentioned in this episode: Chicago Architecture Biennial CAB 6: Shift – Architecture in Times of Radical ChangeFlorencia Rodriguez – SOILEDPLOT Journal (Spanish/archived)

Recorded live at Comics Sans Frontières, Houston For our milestone 900th episode, we headed to Houston and sat down with the brilliant Robert Pruitt, live at the Cats Conference: Comics Sans Frontières—a gathering of artists, thinkers, and cultural workers reshaping the future of comics, narrative, and speculative visual worlds. Live at a bar after the second conference day. So, this is never going to make it to the radio. Cuss-y MacCusserson shows up and healthy arguments occur. Pruitt, known for his richly layered drawings and deep engagement with Black cultural production, walks us through the politics of representation, the influence of comics and sci-fi on his work, and the shifting cultural landscape of the Gulf Coast. We talk materials, mythology, the beauty of inconsistency, and what it means to make work that traffics in both critique and care. Let’s take a moment to reflect on what it means to reach 900 episodes of Bad at Sports—and what’s next for us in the ever-evolving, ever-weird world of contemporary art discourse. Nah. Let’s do it later this week at EXPO Chicago. Mentioned in this episode: Robert Pruitt – Artist Website The Drawing Center Comics Sans Frontières Conference The Studio Museum in Harlem Project Row Houses EXPO Chicago 2025 Bad at Sports: The Center of Discourse (link coming soon!)