Episode 907: A Hubris of Irish Curators
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.
Sub-Rural # 50, Ringleader at R&D, Madison
R&D is a project space directed by Abby Johnson and Austin Swearengin, artists/curators devoted to experimental art, performance, and installations in a sub-urban context. While my writing bridges cultural contexts within and without the too stringent boundaries...
Episode 906: Jaqueline Cedar & Josh Dihle
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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.
Episode 905: The REAL Joey Orr!
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.
Episode 904: Caitlin McGurk and Brian Baynes
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.
Episode 903: Jake Nickell & Lance Curran of Threadless
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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.”
Episode 902: David Schilter and Pedro Vieira de Moura
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.
TOP V. WEEKEND PICKS (6/26-7/2)
1. Mariposa Divina: La Basurita June 27, 7-10PM Co-Prosperity: 3219 S Morgan St 2. Vanessa Damilola Macaulay: Breathing Race into the Machine June 2, 6-8PM International Museum of Surgical Science: 1524 N Lake Shore Dr 3. Jane Leipold & Alex...
TOP V. WEEKEND PICKS (6/19-6/25)
1. Bibiana Saucedo: Dreaming of Pilsen June 21, 6-9PM Sentrock Studio: 2059 W 18th St 2. Alanna Huck-Scarry & Ella Rinaldi: Tussock Clasp June 20, 6-10PM Positive Space Studios: 3520 W Fullerton Ave 3. Martyna Alexander: The Distant Now June 14,...
Sub-Rural #49.5, Door County Contemporary Art Fair
Milwaukee artists and entrepreneurs Shane McAdams and Shane Walsh began planning last week’s Door County Contemporary Art Fair some four years ago while teaching at the Peninsula School of Art, the eventual site of the fair. McAdams recalled, “We ran it by the...
TOP V. WEEKEND PICKS (6/12-6/18)
1. Natasha Moustache: Water Lines June 13, 6-9PM Blanc Gallery: 4445 S Martin Luther King Dr 2. House of Earth June 14, 6PM KIOSK: 3054 N Sheffield Ave Work by: Anonymous makers, Nick Chiado, Travis Morehead, Benjamin Zumbrun, Carolina Pereira de Almeida, and...
TOP V. WEEKEND PICKS (6/5-6/11)
1. Jessica Zawadowicz and Yaismel Alba Garib: There’s a box they don’t tell you about June 6, 6-10PM Patient Info: 902 N Western Ave 2. Caitlyn Min-ji Au: Panda June 7, 3-8PM SHANGHAI SEMINARY: 3262 S Morgan St 3. José A Rosa: Dulce Sueño June 6, 6PM El...
Sub-Rural #49, Intuit Art Museum Redux
Debra Kerr, Director of Chicago’s newly christened “Intuit Art Museum,” contends enthusiastically that “art can be made anywhere by anyone.” If so, it raises a question about criteria for collecting and exhibiting. Surely there are formal patterns and content...
TOP V. WEEKEND PICKS (5/29-6/4)
1. Devontez Cox: The Logan Square Project May 30, 6-9PM Point Blank: 3317 W Fullerton Ave Curated by Samiah Fulcher and Isaiah Lee 2. Michael Bever: Kunstausstellung: A Solo Art Show June 1, 11AM-7PM Lincoln Square Barber Shop Gallery: 2415 W Lawrence Ave...
TOP V. WEEKEND PICKS (5/22-5/28)
1. Lola Ayisha Ogbara: Marked May 22, 6-9PM Tala: 1644 W Chicago Ave 2. C. C. Ann Chen: Whereabouts May 24, 6-8PM Tiger Strikes Asteroid Chicago: 2233 S Throop St 3. Caroline David: Red May 24, 5-8PM Prairie: 2055 W Cermak Rd 4. Tom Torluemke:...
TOP V. WEEKEND PICKS (5/15-5/21)
1. Grishma Shah: Dissonance May 16, 7-9PM Bridgeport Art Center: 1200 W 35th St 2. Amira Diaw: I too pass from the night May 17, 6-8PM Hardboiled: DM For Address 3. Maxwell Volkman & Alex Adkinson: The River Sweats with Oil and Tar May 17, 6-9PM...