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 @jmkacKohler Arts/Industry Residency Kohler Co. @kohler   Name-Drop Jodi Throckmorton  - https://curatorsintl.org/abou

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.artfor

  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 sto

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 – ht

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, mo

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. Highlight

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 Photo by Dominique Muñoz @domo23   Name-Drop Shannon R. Stratton - https://www.shannonraestratton.com/about Threewalls — https://three-walls.org/ Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) —https://madmuseum.org/ Haystac

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

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 Sp

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 -

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)

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: Liliane Puthod – https://www.lilianeputhod.net/ Áine Mac Giolla Bhríde (A.Mac) – https://www.motherstankstation.com/artist/aine-mac-giolla-bhride/ Devin Mays – https://regardsgallery.com/artists/devin-mays/ Haynes Riley / Good Weather – https://www.goodweather.llc Becky Nahom (ICA) – https://curatorsint

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 Col

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

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 rib

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 vendin

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.

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 Change Florencia Rodriguez – SOILED Florencia Rodriguez – PLOT Journal (Spa

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