Sub-Rural, #64 Pope.L
Pope.L’s lengthy and productive career, regrettably cut short in 2023, is catalogued as conceptualist, activist, poet, performer, conjurer, and quasi-ethnographer. The artist was a radical progeny of Fluxus with keen rebukes of institutions, cultural or...
Episode 973: Manuel Mathieu
What do you do when your hope for the future starts to feel fragile? And what can a painting, an act of remembrance, or a bottle of perfume do about it?
Duncan MacKenzie sits down with Haitian-born artist Manuel Mathieu at Calgary’s Esker Foundation for a conversation that moves between studio practice and the world beyond it. They begin with Mathieu’s presentation at the 2026 Venice Biennale, including GENOCIDE and his mosaic Abundance and Drought, then explore archives, erasure, political power, the responsibilities of artists, and whether art can make room for disagreement without closing down empathy.
Episode 972: Jeanette Andrews
Artist and magician Jeanette Andrews joins Duncan and Jesse at the Elmhurst Art Museum, the very place where, as a teenager, she began imagining how magic could become contemporary art. Nearly twenty years later, that ambition has become an exhibition.
Episode 971: Jean Alexander Frater, Matthew Girson & Dana DeGiulio at Material
What can eight small paintings tell us about the possibilities of an artist-run space? Duncan MacKenzie, joined midway by Jesse Malmed, speaks with Jean Alexander Frater, Matthew Girson, and Dana DeGiulio about a two-person exhibition at Material, Jean’s artist-run project space in Chicago’s Roscoe Village. Four paintings by Matthew and four by Dana are installed in an alternating sequence, setting up a conversation across the walls rather than dividing the gallery by artist.
Episode: 970 – A P(o)or(t)ch Theater with Mark Jeffery, Judd Morrissey and Kristin Mariani
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At Spudnik Press in Chicago, Duncan MacKenzie, Brian Andrews and Ryan Peter Miller welcome Mark Jeffery, Judd Morrissey and Kristin Mariani to discuss the Poor Farm Experiment’s Leopold Benches: A P(o)or(t)ch Theater (MIDWEST REDUX).
Episode 969: Abby Pucker and Chanelle Lacy… It’s Cool to Care?
What if the problem with Chicago’s art world isn’t a shortage of artists, galleries, institutions, or ideas—but a shortage of connective tissue?
This week on Bad at Sports, Duncan MacKenzie sits down at the Gertie Hub with Gertie founder Abby Pucker and Head of Programming, Partnerships & Membership Chanelle Lacy for a conversation about building audiences, building collectors, and building cultural infrastructure in Chicago.
TOP V. WEEKEND PICKS (10/1-10/7)
0. The Great Art Tailgate with Bad at Sports October 3, 11AM-3PM Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago — Anne & John Kern Terrace Garden: 220 E Chicago Ave 1. The Caliber of Risk October 1, 6-10PM No Nation Tangential Unspace Art Lab: 1542 N Milwaukee Ave Work...
TOP V. WEEKEND PICKS (9/24-9/30)
1. Rob Fox Rich: Sing About Me, I’m Dying of Thirst September 25, 5-9PM Fourtunehouse: 4410 S Cottage Grove Ave 2. Candace Hunter: Intentionality, 1960: Whose Dreams? September 24, 6-8PM Arts + Public Life: 301 E Garfield Blvd 3. Araceli Zuniga: Egg...
TOP V. WEEKEND PICKS (9/17-9/23)
1. Jesse Bond: OWN WHO YOU ARE: closing reception September 19, 6-9PM Sawhorse: 4222 W Fullerton Ave 2. Human-Nature September 17, 7-9PM The Franklin: 3522 W Franklin Blvd Artwork by: Andres L. Hernandez, Carlos Salazar Lermont, Hai-Wen Lin, Human Nature,...
TOP V. WEEKEND PICKS (9/10-9/16)
1. Laleh Motlagh: Rooted. Uprooted. September 12, 5-8PM SoNa Chicago Contemporary Art: 1527 N Ashland Ave 2. Reevah Agarwaal: Now I Braid My Own Hair September 12, 6-9PM Boundary: 2334 W 111th Pl 3. Robert Fields: EVERY NOW N’THEN . . . September 13,...
TOP V. WEEKEND PICKS (9/3-9/9)
1. Xinchen Li: The Shape of What Was September 4, 5-8PM ARC Gallery: 1463 W Chicago Ave 2. Rial Rye: Oscillation September 4, 6-9PM Ignition Project Space: 3839 W Grand Ave 3. I Am A Rock I Am A Roll September 5, 5-9PM KIOSK: 3054 N Sheffield Ave Work...
Sub-Rural #63, Chicago Works | Mike Cloud
A vital part of painting as a medium and practice juggles concerns about what constitutes art history and the public along with questions about a hierarchy in cultural critique, ethnography, craft, and geographic identity. We live in a time where fewer subjects fit...
TOP V. WEEKEND PICKS (8/27-9/2)
1. Barbara Ciurej and Lindsay Lochman: Domestic Disruptions August 30, 3-6PM Riverside Arts Center's Freeark Gallery and Sculpture Garden: 32 E Quincy St, Riverside 2. Emmy Star Brown and Danym Kwon: The Peace of Wild Things August 28, 6-8PM Joy Machine: 4148 N...
TOP V. WEEKEND PICKS (8/20-8/26)
1. To Be Remembered: Woven Matters of the Heart August 21, 4-7PM Chicago Cultural Center: 78 E Washington St Work by: Nnaemeka Ekwelum, Hale Ekinci, Josué Esaú, and Thuong Hoài Tran 2. Islands from a Faltering Empire August 21, 6-9PM OH Art Foundation: 3314 S...
TOP V. WEEKEND PICKS (8/13-8/19)
1. Saffronia Downing: Pressed Flower August 14, 6-9PM ACRE Projects: 2921 N Clark St 2. Relative Intensity Noise by Rin Peisert August 15, 8;30-10:30PM Elastic Arts: 3429 W Diversey Ave, Suite 208 Work by: Cynthia Post Hunt, Sungjae Lee, Carlos Salazar-Lermont,...