Bad at Sports Episode 887: 21C Hotels, Jennifer Murray, and Artist Evan Fusco
Release Date: 01/02/2025
Bad at Sports Episode 909: Paul Pfeiffer
Bad at Sports
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 - Manny Pacquiao - The Bible (yes, the text) - Tom Gunning - Joshua Oppenheimer - DJ Spooky (Paul...
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Bad at Sports Episode 908: Rachel Adams and the Bemis Art Center
Bad at Sports
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 Liz Magic Laser Beatriz Santiago Muñoz lima.art Candice...
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Bad at Sports Episode 907: A Hubris of Irish Curators
Bad at Sports
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...
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Bad at Sports Episode 906: Jaqueline Cedar & Josh Dihle
Bad at Sports
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...
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Bad at Sports Episode 905: The REAL Joey Orr!
Bad at Sports
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...
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Bad at Sports Episode 904: Caitlin McGurk and Brian Baynes
Bad at Sports
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 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...
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Bad at Sports Episode 903: Jake Nickell & Lance Curran of Threadless
Bad at Sports
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...
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Episode 902: David Schilter and Pedro Vieira de Moura
Bad at Sports
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...
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Episode 901: Florencia Rodriguez and CAB 6
Bad at Sports
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...
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Bad at Sports Episode 900: Robert Pruitt
Bad at Sports
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...
info_outlineIn this episode of Bad at Sports, we’re coming to you live from the Stitch and Staple Artist Book Fair at 21C Museum Hotels! Join us as we chat with Jennifer Murray, about the evolving landscape of artist book fairs and the growing role of alternative exhibition spaces. We also dive into the mind of Evan Fusco, a rising artist and art producer whose multidisciplinary practice explores themes of identity, memory, and transformation.
Our hosts discuss the significance of the 21C Museum Hotels as a cultural space that bridges hospitality and contemporary art, creating opportunities for artists and visitors alike.
Highlights:
- The history of the 21c and public art with Jennifer Murray
- Evan Fusco’s artistic process and how his work challenges conventional forms
- The role of 21C Museum Hotels as an alternative platform for art in unexpected spaces
- Insights from the Stitch and Staple Artist Book Fair at 21C Hotels
Tune in for a dynamic conversation on the future of art in unconventional spaces and the work of emerging artists like Fusco!
Suggested Links: (more links soon)
- 21C Museum Hotels – Learn more about 21C Museum Hotels and their fusion of art and hospitality.
- Jennifer Murray – Former Director of Filter Photo and a key figure in contemporary photography, now Curator at 21C Chicago
- Evan Fusco – Explore Evan Fusco’s portfolio.
- Stitch and Staple Artist Book Fair – Find out more about the event and participating artists.