Bad at Sports Episode 894: Hoof Print Press & Immaterial Publications
Release Date: 03/04/2025
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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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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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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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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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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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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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...
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Gremlins, Borders, and Recipes for Resistance This week we’re joined by Jessica Snow and Liga Spunde, two artists navigating the world through comics, street theater, and occasionally letterpress and photoshop. Jessica Snow walks us through her wide-ranging practice—from illustration and letterpress to building massive puppets and organizing street performances to attempting to confronting the entangled realities of border politics, ecological collapse, and resistance. Her work with Kitchen Table Press and collaborative projects like Recipes of Resistance blend protest and...
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This week. Dana’s back? She and Duncan sit down with artist Wafaa Bilal and curator Bana Kattan to discuss Bilal’s powerful and deeply personal mid-career retrospective at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. Known for his provocative, often participatory works that grapple with war, trauma, displacement, and surveillance, Bilal has long made the body both a site of resistance and a vessel of memory. We talk through key moments in Bilal’s practice—from early performance pieces like Domestic Tension to newer, installation-based works—and reflect on how his work has shifted,...
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In this episode, we talk Architectural Doucmentaries, Graphic Design, the cross over of the art and design audiences, and whether or not social practice could be a job: Kyle Bergman, is the mastermind behind the Architecture & Design Film Festival (ADFF), takes us through the wild ride of showcasing global architectural stories and films. He shares the festival’s international charm and its role in making architecture the star of the show. Ashley Lukasik, filmmaker and Principal of Murmur Ring, joins us to talk about The New Bauhaus documentary (Maholy’s got swag)...
info_outlineIn this episode, Bad at Sports dives into the world of independent publishing, printmaking, and the intersections of art, academia, and production with two innovative presses pushing the boundaries of their respective fields.
Hoof Print Press, based in Pilsen, Chicago, is not just a print shop, but a thriving print publisher that explores multiple media, including ceramics. Known for their dynamic exhibition series, they bring a unique perspective on the art of printmaking, combining tradition with modern experimentation. We talk about how they balance the fine art of print with the hands-on craft of ceramics and what it means to operate as both creators and curators in the community-driven Pilsen neighborhood. - Gabe Hoare on mic.
Next, we’re joined by Immaterial Books, a quasi-academic press that’s redefining the possibilities of academic publishing. Immaterial tests the limits of what it means to produce knowledge and content outside the conventional capitalist distribution and production models. They explore nontraditional forms of publishing that challenge the boundaries between art and academia. In this conversation, we dive into how their radical approach to publishing engages with academia, art practices, and the broader cultural conversation around knowledge production. Phillip Kalantzis-Cope on mic.
Together, we discuss how both presses navigate the evolving worlds of independent publishing and art production, and how their work is changing the ways we think about community, art, and knowledge distribution.
Tune in for an insightful episode that explores the intersection of artistic practices, publishing, and the role of independent presses in today’s creative and academic landscapes.
Live from 21C Chicago!