Episode 919: Kohler, Throckmorton, and Grabner
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.
TOP V. WEEKEND PICKS (11/6-12)
1. Carlos Salazar-Lermont: Fixing the Baroque November 7, 6-9PM ACRE Projects: 2921 N. Clark St 2. Alison Chen: The Tenderness of Tides November 7, 6-9PM Filter Space: 1821 W Hubbard St, Suite 207 3. POST POST POST POST, POST, POST POST! POST! POST!...
Episode 918: Amanda Ross-Ho
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.
Episode 917: Two Palms and Alex Slattery
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.
Episode 916: Alex Ross and two fan boys
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.
Episode 915: Kenny Schachter and Bianca Bova – From Autodidact to Art World Outsider (Part 2)
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.
Episode 914: Kenny Schachter – Chickens, Auctions, and Foundries (Part 1)
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.
Sub-Rural #54, Punked Up Milwaukee
The “Gig’s Up: 50 Years of Milwaukee Punk Posters” exhibition at Real Tinsel Gallery argues zealously for more critical attention to the era of Milwaukee’s alternative rock foundations shown in its vast promotional optic co-narrative. If you’re already familiar with...
TOP V. WEEKEND PICKS (10/30-11/5)
1. Félix Mirel: The Body is Chaos. November 1, 6-10PM SPACE 01: 4850 W Bloomingdale Ave 2. Stuffed November 1, 4-6PM Co-Prosperity: 3219 S Morgan St Work by: Jesse Egner, Ren Buchness, Tore Hallas, BOARLORD, Zoë Schneider, Jaq Garcia 3. Judith Brotman:...
TOP V. WEEKEND PICKS (10/23-10/29)
1. Aya Nakamura: Parts, Places October 26, 4-7PM 4th Ward Project Space: 5338 S Kimbark Ave 2. Chaosophy October 25, 8:30-11PM Site/less: 1250 W Augusta Blvd Work by: Verónica Casado Hernández, Aza Greenlee, Radu Nistoroiu, and Unenthused Groupie 3. In...
TOP V. WEEKEND PICKS (10/16-10/22)
1. Flor Flores: mirror moment October 16, 5-7PM Ralph Arnold Gallery: 1131 W Sheridan Rd 2. Chemical X October 18, 6-10PM Evoke Gallery: 3040 N Central Ave Work by: abrina Zhao, Brooke Raven, Zoë Chen, Sade Coffman, Isaiah Lee, Dante Moore, Xavier Potts, ARDEN,...
TOP V. WEEKEND PICKS (10/9-10/15)
1. Rebecca Griffith: Video Magic 1996 October 10, 5-9PM Art City: 1400 N Halsted St 2. Minor Harmonies October 9, 6-9PM Tala: 1644 W Chicago Ave, #1 Work by: Laila Majid, Joseph J. Greer, and Anastasia Sif Karkazis. Curated by Misael José Oquendo 3....
Sub-Rural # 53, Reviving the Dance of Death, MAM
There’s a lot that’s fated about the “Revival of the Dance of Death” print exhibition at the Milwaukee Art Museum, much more than an October flirtation with witchcraft and the Day of the Dead. The exhibition consists of a series of prints by the extraordinarily...
TOP V. WEEKEND PICKS (10/2-10/8)
1. Katherine Skwira-Brown: Sidelighting October 3, 6-9PM Point Blank: 3317 W Fullerton Ave, Chicago 2. Yvonne Doll October 3, 6:30-8:30PM Center on Halsted: 3656 N Halsted St 3. Taking Shape October 4, 6-10PM Metiche: 5252 W Warner Ave Work by: Alberto...
TOP V. WEEKEND PICKS (9/25-10/1)
1. Residual: Irse sin dejar rastro September 26, 6PM El Schomburg: 2538 W Division St Work by: Awilda Sterling Duprey, Awilda Rodríguez Lora, Javier Cardona, Alejandra Rosa, Helen Ceballos, Brenda Torres-Figueroa, and Sonia Hernández Báez. Co-curated by Brenda...
TOP V. WEEKEND PICKS (9/18-9/24)
1. Open Hours September 18, 2025 – September 30, 5PM (starting a little earlier, or staying a little later, depending on the day) Roman Susan: 1224 W Loyola Ave With open participatory events with Marc Fischer, Tim Hogan, Siobhan Leonard, AJ McClenon, dj peripheral,...