Bad at Sports

What makes a painting worth saving? What happens when the image in your head refuses to become the image on your panel? And why does everybody want another fox?

This week on Bad at Sports, Duncan MacKenzie, Brian Andrews, and Ryan Peter Miller welcome Chicago painter Mari Eastman for a conversation recorded at Spudnik Press during its Riso Print Fest. Eastman takes us through the pleasures and frustrations of painting, from translating a beloved fox into a woodblock print to rescuing abandoned paintings with techniques borrowed from Bob Ross. They explore fashion photography, the Chicago figurative painting scene, the peculiar intimacy of appropriated images, and the elusive point where faithful representation can lose the feeling that made an image irresistible in the first place.

Name Drops:

• Mari Eastman - bombonprojects.com

• Ben Butler - benbutlerart.com

• Shannon Stratton - shannonraestratton.com

• Edvard Munch - nga.gov

• Kerry James Marshall - nga.gov

• Paul McCarthy - hauserwirth.com

• Tyson Reeder - canadanewyork.com

• Carl Baratta - carlbaratta.com

• Bob Ross - bobross.com

• Rebecca Morris - bortolamigallery.com

• Richard Estes - nga.gov

• Karen Kilimnik - metmuseum.org

• Richard Prince - gagosian.com

• Elizabeth Peyton - gagosian.com

• Margaux Williamson - bradleyertaskiran.com

• Leanne Shapton - leanneshapton.com

• School of the Art Institute of Chicago - saic.edu

• Spudnik Press - spudnikpress.org

• Process/Process - process-process.com

• Bombon Projects - bombonprojects.com

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.

Mathieu talks through the evolution of his paintings, from highly controlled marks to surfaces that scrape, drip, burn, and resist their original plans. He argues that figuration is not abstraction's opposite so much as one of its tools. He and Duncan work through the possibilities of beauty, Haitian Vodou, spirituality, the legacy of Toussaint Louverture, and the difference between changing the world and changing the lives of the people near you.

Name Drops and links

• Manuel Mathieu - https://www.manuelmathieu.com/

• Clyfford Still - https://clyffordstillmuseum.org/

• Kara Walker - https://www.karawalkerstudio.com/

• Kent Monkman - https://www.kentmonkman.com/

• Titus Kaphar - https://www.kapharstudio.com/

• Willem de Kooning - https://www.dekooning.org/

• Christian Boltanski - https://www.centrepompidou.fr/en/ressources/personne/z88xAxH

• Francis Bacon - https://www.francis-bacon.com/

• Toussaint Louverture - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toussaint_Louverture

• Audre Lorde - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audre_Lorde

• bell hooks - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_hooks

• Esker Foundation - https://eskerfoundation.com/

• Pilar Corrias - https://www.pilarcorrias.com/

• Manuel Mathieu Parfums - https://manuelmathieuparfums.com/en

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. The conversation travels from Victorian parlor magic and vaudeville to the psychology of surprise, Alan Turing, and Andrews's Taken by Artificial Surprise, which asks audiences to distinguish between human-created magic and illusions developed with machine learning. Along the way: why knowing how a trick works can ruin the experience, whether magic is really for adults, and a research process involving enough handwritten notes to make an apartment resemble a conspiracy theorist's headquarters.

****Update: The HCL Benefit is November 10th, 2026

Photo: Michael George

Name Drop List:

Duncan MacKenzie - kurasmackenzie.com

Jesse Malmed - uwm.edu/arts/directory/malmed-jesse/

Jeanette Andrews - jeanetteandrewsstudio.com

Bad at Sports - badatsports.com

Lumpen Radio - lumpenradio.com

Elmhurst Art Museum - elmhurstartmuseum.org

McCormick House - elmhurstartmuseum.org/architecture

Criss Angel - crissangel.com

John Cottingham - johncottingham.co.uk

Western Philosophy: An Anthology - johncottingham.co.uk/Western-Philosophy/

Max Maven - maxmaven.com

The Office - peacocktv.com/stream-tv/the-office

Jean-Eugène Robert-Houdin - encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/theater-biographies/jean-eugene-robert-houdin

Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago - mcachicago.org

Invisible Roses - mcachicago.org/stories/editorial/invisible-roses/

Anton Chekhov - britannica.com/biography/Anton-Chekhov

Tom Griffiths - psych.princeton.edu/people/tom-griffiths

Revealing ontological commitments by magic - pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25490128/

High Concept Labs - highconceptlabs.org

Harvard metaLAB - metalab.harvard.edu

Alan Turing - britannica.com/biography/Alan-Turing

Computing Machinery and Intelligence - academic.oup.com/mind/article/LIX/236/433/986238

Taken by Artificial Surprise - jeanetteandrewsstudio.com/taken-by-artificial-surprise

Chicago Symphony Orchestra - cso.org

In Plain Listen - jeanetteandrewsstudio.com/in-plain-listen-nac

University of Houston - uh.edu

MIT — Jeanette Andrews visiting-artist profile - arts.mit.edu/people/jeanette-andrews/

On Wonder, Mind, & Magic: Jeanette Andrews - elmhurstartmuseum.org/exhibitions/on%20wonder%20mind%20and%20magic

High Concept Labs 2026 Benefit - highconceptlabs.org/events/2026-benefit

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.

Their discussion begins with the particular staying power of artist-run Chicago: Dana's work establishing Julius Caesar in 2008, Matthew's earlier project presenting artworks from the cab of a pickup truck, and Jean's decade of making room for other artists at Material. From there, the conversation turns to the peculiar ambitions of intimate paintings, each made within a day. Is choosing a familiar genre conservative? What happens when a painting leaves the studio and enters the social space of an exhibition? And what can an actual encounter with an object offer that a circulating image cannot?

The group follows those questions through care, constraint, repetition, touch, and hospitality—with Maggie Nelson, Agnes Martin, Nina Simone, and the art market making appearances along the way. If a painting cannot tell its viewer what to feel, perhaps it can begin a sentence someone else is free to finish.

Names Dropped:

Duncan MacKenzie - kurasmackenzie.com/

Jesse Malmed - jessemalmed.net/

Jean Alexander Frater - alexanderfrater.com/home.html

Matthew Girson - matthewgirson.com/

Dana DeGiulio - danadegiulio.com/

Agnes Martin - diaart.org/collection/artist-a-to-z/martin-agnes

Jackson Pollock - pkhouse.org/

Maggie Nelson - poetryfoundation.org/poets/maggie-nelson

Martin Luther King Jr. - thekingcenter.org/about-tkc/martin-luther-king-jr/

Nina Simone - ninasimone.com/biography/

Nick Cave (musician) - nickcave.com/

Bad at Sports - badatsports.com/

Material - thevisualist.org/?p=194120

Julius Caesar - juliuscaesarchicago.net/about-jc

Lumpen Radio - lumpenradio.com/

Christie's - christies.com/

Rothko Chapel - rothkochapel.org/

Palace of Versailles - en.chateauversailles.fr/

Google - blog.google/

Steinway & Sons - steinway.com/

Paintings that have the look of paintings that are looked at - thevisualist.org/?p=194120

On Freedom: Four Songs of Care and Constraint - graywolfpress.org/books/freedom-0

Art Song (section of On Freedom) - graywolfpress.org/books/freedom-0

Number 7A, 1948 (Jackson Pollock) - christies.com/en/stories/jackson-pollock-number7a-1948-john-elderfield-44b8c76206ad4793a8dccc3c899ea86f

Christie's May 18, 2026 evening auctions - press.christies.com/christies-commences-spring-marquee-week-with-11-billion-in-sales-in-a-single-night/

Project Suncatcher - blog.google/innovation-and-ai/technology/research/google-project-suncatcher/

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).

Developed through the U.S. Pavilion's PORCH program at the 2025 Venice Architecture Biennale and presented in Chicago at the MCA's Chicago Performs festival, the work turns a porch into a place of observation, invitation, performance and collective play.

The conversation moves through Aldo Leopold's benches, stereoscopic photographs and binocular rivalry, Mariani's language-bearing Text Toiles, the choreography of "queer sitting," and the Deeply Choir's role in animating the museum plaza.

It also opens onto the project's wider artistic ecology: Michelle Grabner and Brad Killam's Poor Farm in Wisconsin; Mark Jeffery and Kelly Kaczynski's residency practice; the nido residency in Umbria; and an approach to collaboration in which living together, hosting, making and friendship become inseparable.

PERFORMANCE:

9/25/2026 - 3pm at the MCA! (Dolly Day)

Names Dropped:

Duncan MacKenzie - kurasmackenzie.com

Brian Andrews - brianandrews.org

Ryan Peter Miller - ryanpetermiller.com/about

Mark Jeffery - saic.edu/profiles/faculty/mark-jeffery

Judd Morrissey - saic.edu/profiles/faculty/judd-morrissey

Kristin Mariani - saic.edu/profiles/faculty/kristin-mariani

Kelly Kaczynski - kellyfkaczynski.com/About

Michelle Grabner - michellegrabner.com

Brad Killam - cod.edu/faculty/websites/killam.html

Cynthia Post Hunt - cynthiaposthunt.com/about

Aldo Leopold - aldoleopold.org/about/aldo-leopold

Shannon Stratton - shannonraestratton.com/about

Kelly Lloyd - k-lloyd.com/bio-statement

Chris Wood - mcachicago.org/whats-on/events/the-poor-farm-a-poortch-theater-midwest-redux

Corey Smith - coreyds.com

VALIE EXPORT - valieexport.at

Lyubov Popova - moma.org/artists/4694-liubov-popova

Varvara Stepanova - moma.org/artists/5643-varvara-stepanova

Kay Rosen - kayrosen.com

Sol LeWitt - moma.org/artists/3528-sol-lewitt

Giotto - nga.gov/artists/1342-giotto

Caravaggio - nationalgallery.org.uk/artists/michelangelo-merisi-da-caravaggio

Lisa Stone - spacesarchives.org/about-us/spaces-board/lisa-stone

Maria Gaspar - mariagaspar.com/bio

Ginger Krebs - gingerkrebs.com/home.html

Laura Paige Kyber - mcachicago.org/about/who-we-are/people/laura-kyber

Joey Orr - joeyorr.com/about

Moira Brennan - jeromefdn.org/moira-brennan

Lin Hixson - everyhousehasadoor.org

Peter Taub - pewcenterarts.org/panelist/peter-taub

Vanessa Damilola Macaulay - vanessamacaulay.com/about

Leon J. Hilton - taps.brown.edu/people/leon-hilton

Bonnie Tyler - bonnietyler.com

Mies van der Rohe - miessociety.org

Midas (Kelly Kaczynski's dog) - kellyfkaczynski.com/About

Leopold Benches / MCA Chicago - mcachicago.org/whats-on/events/the-poor-farm-a-poortch-theater-midwest-redux

Poor Farm Experiment - poorfarmexperiment.org

Living Within the Play: nido V - poorfarmexperiment.org/?page_id=1427

Spudnik Press - spudnikpress.org

MCA Talk: Performance Art in Chicago - mcachicago.org/whats-on/events/mca-talk-performance-art-in-chicago

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.

The story starts with Gertie's origin: Abby's long-running interest in getting people into the same room, her return to Chicago during COVID, and a listening tour that revealed a strange contradiction. Chicago had museums, galleries, artists, spaces, and ambitious programming everywhere—but plenty of people still felt like they had nowhere to go and no way into the culture. Gertie emerged as an attempt to close that gap.

From there, the conversation becomes a much bigger argument about Chicago. Why does the city produce so many remarkable artists and cultural workers while remaining so difficult for mid-career artists to sustain? When does Chicago's legendary self-reliance become a silo? What happens when "we don't care what New York thinks" stops being freedom and starts becoming a defensive posture? And what kind of infrastructure would make it easier for artists to stay, return, grow, and find audiences here?

That leads directly into Chicago Exhibition Week, running September 14–20, 2026: Gertie's citywide effort to make Chicago's existing cultural ecosystem radically easier to enter. Abby and Chanelle talk maps, directories, marketing, partnerships, galleries, museums, new collectors, and the deceptively difficult work of getting people off Instagram and through the door.

Along the way, Duncan asks the most basic—and maybe hardest—question: what is the value argument for art? Chanelle answers that art lets us see the world through someone else's eyes and creates a context for difficult conversations. Abby talks about curiosity, connection, discovery, and the pleasure of feeling "in on" a cultural conversation. All three keep circling the same problem: who is building new art fans now?

The discussion also wanders happily through Riot Fest, music-festival graphics, the Armory, Coachella, Lollapalooza, art fairs, neighborhood galleries, collecting, Chicago parking, and the possibility of turning a finance professional into an art freak.

Then the radio fades out...

In the internet-only nugget, the conversation gets into the brass tacks: Gertie Curious and Gertie Curated, membership programming, collection and studio visits, cultural travel, and the relationship between membership and the organization's public-facing work. From there, Abby and Duncan go deep on a question Bad at Sports has wrestled with for years: why build a cultural organization as a for-profit instead of a nonprofit?

That opens a long discussion about philanthropy, grants, mission creep, institutional agility, donor power, KPIs, governance, learned dependency, the economics of culture, and whether an art industry can be sustained almost entirely by galleries, auction houses, and charitable giving.

The answer, at least here, is not especially tidy—which is why it is worth listening to.

It may, however, begin with Abby's simplest proposition:

It's cool to care.

NAME DROPS / FURTHER READING Guests / Gertie

• Gertie — https://www.gertie.co/

• Abby Pucker / Chanelle Lacy / Gertie team — https://www.gertie.co/about

• Gertie membership — https://www.gertie.co/membership

• Gertie Instagram — @gertie.chicago — https://www.instagram.com/gertie.chicago/

Chicago Exhibition Week

• Chicago Exhibition Week 2026 — September 14–20, 2026 — https://www.chicagoexhibitionweek.com/

• CXW 2026 map — https://www.chicagoexhibitionweek.com/2026-map

Gertie exhibitions discussed

• 82 Nights Only* — September 16–December 13, 2026, Gertie Hub — https://www.gertie.co/exhibitions/82-nights-only

• Over My Head: Encounters with Conceptual Art in a Flyover City, 1984–2015 — https://www.gertie.co/exhibitions/over-my-head

• Ornament & Information — Chicago Cultural Center — https://www.gertie.co/exhibitions/ornament-and-information

Earlier projects / people

• Art in Common — co-founded by Zoe Lukov — https://www.artincommon.art/about-2

• Zoe Lukov — https://www.zoelukov.com/about-mission — Instagram: @zoelukov

• Next Stop: Chicago — https://www.nextstopchicago.co/

• Neighbors art fair — https://www.neighbors.art/

• Mirka Serrato / Neighbors background

• Vic Mensa — Next Stop: Chicago.

Chicago art ecosystem / venues

• Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago — https://mcachicago.org/

• Art Institute of Chicago — https://www.artic.edu/

• The Renaissance Society — https://www.renaissancesociety.org/

• Chicago Cultural Center — https://www.chicago.gov/city/en/depts/dca/supp_info/chicago_culturalcenter.html

• SECRIST | BEACH — https://secristbeach.com/

• Spudnik Press Cooperative — https://www.spudnikpress.org/

• Corbett vs. Dempsey — https://corbettvsdempsey.com/

• Recess — https://recesschicago.com/

• All Together Now — https://www.alltogethernow.fun/

• SVRN — https://www.svrn.com/

Music / festival / cultural comparisons

• Riot Fest — https://riotfest.org/

• Mike "Riot Mike" Petryshyn — Riot Fest founder

• The Armory Show — https://www.thearmoryshow.com/

• Lollapalooza — https://www.lollapalooza.com/

• Coachella — https://www.coachella.com/

• Knockdown Center — https://knockdown.center/

Membership-program references

• The Joffrey Ballet — https://joffrey.org/

• Lyric Opera of Chicago — https://www.lyricopera.org/

• Art Basel Paris — https://www.artbasel.com/paris

Other institutions / art-market references

• Gagosian — https://gagosian.com/

• Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) — https://www.moma.org/

• Barnes Foundation — https://www.barnesfoundation.org/

• Bad at Sports — https://badatsports.com/

• Lumpen Radio / WLPN 105.5 FM — https://lumpenradio.com/

What if the most radical thing an artist can do right now is… take their time?

This week on Bad at Sports, Duncan MacKenzie and Brian Andrews sit down with curators Abigail Winograd and Dieter Roelstraete, a.k.a. DRAW, to talk about their recent GRAY Chicago exhibition, IT'S ABOUT TIME: Counterproductive Conceptualisms in Chicago.

Originally conceived under the much more dangerous title "Slacker Conceptualism," the exhibition gathers ten Chicago-based or Chicago-trained artists around a shared suspicion of productivity, professionalism, polish, legibility, self-branding, and the endless demand that artists explain themselves.

The conversation starts with artists who take years to finish paintings, lean things against walls rather than attach them, make objects that seem almost perversely uninterested in becoming commodities, and cultivate what Abigail and Dieter call a kind of "studied nonchalance."

From there, things get bigger.

What does it mean to make political art without making your politics immediately legible? What happens when opacity becomes an act of resistance? Can refusing productivity itself be political? Why does Chicago—with its strange combination of universities, affordable-ish space, artist-run culture, deep pedagogical histories, and relative distance from the market machinery of New York—make this particular kind of artistic life possible?

Along the way we get Pope.L, Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle, Michael Asher, Bas Jan Ader, Josef Strau, Cologne in the 1990s, Gen-X slackerdom, cringe comedy, unfinished paintings, unopened packages, boats, sawhorses, kitchen cabinets, artist losers, artist attitudes, the fetish of identity, the problem with virtue signaling, and the revolutionary possibility of simply refusing to hustle.

And then the radio turns off.

In the web-only afterparty, the conversation expands into earlier generations of Chicago conceptualism, center-versus-periphery arguments, the weird provincialism of assuming New York remains the center of American art, and finally the uncomfortable relationship between art schools, enormous tuition bills, professionalization, and the economic pressure placed on young artists to turn artistic practice into a viable career.

Is the artist supposed to produce? Explain? Sell? Educate? Perform an identity? Change the world?

Or can you just be an artist?

Apparently, in Chicago, you can at least try.

NAME DROPS / FURTHER READING

The exhibition

• IT'S ABOUT TIME: Counterproductive Conceptualisms in Chicago — GRAY Chicago, July 10–August 22, 2026. Exhibition text, artists, checklist, installation views, and curatorial essay: GRAY — IT'S ABOUT TIME
• DRAW — the curatorial collaboration of Abigail Winograd and Dieter Roelstraete. The exhibition page includes biographies of both curators: DRAW / GRAY exhibition page

Curators

• Abigail Winograd — independent curator and writer; co-curator/co-commissioner of Jeffrey Gibson's 2024 U.S. Pavilion and former Neubauer Collegium Visiting Fellow: Abigail Winograd — Neubauer Collegium
• Dieter Roelstraete — curator at the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society, University of Chicago; former MCA Chicago curator and documenta 14 curatorial team member: Dieter Roelstraete — Neubauer Collegium

Artists in IT'S ABOUT TIME

• Alex Chitty: alexchitty.com
• Shir Ende: shirende.com
• Max Guy: maxguy.studio
• Jinn Bronwen Lee: jinnbronwenlee.com
• Dave Lloyd — see the GRAY exhibition page for works and installation views: Dave Lloyd in IT'S ABOUT TIME
• Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle: Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle — artist information and website
• Devin T. Mays — see the GRAY exhibition page: Devin T. Mays in IT'S ABOUT TIME
• Pope.L: Pope.L — MoMA
• Nick Raffel — see the GRAY exhibition page: Nick Raffel in IT'S ABOUT TIME
• Miao Wang — see the GRAY exhibition page: Miao Wang in IT'S ABOUT TIME

Conceptual-art ancestors, fellow travelers, and troublemakers

• Michael Asher — conceptual artist and legendary CalArts teacher whose practice becomes an important reference point in the conversation: Michael Asher — CalArts / MOCA overview
• Bas Jan Ader — particularly In Search of the Miraculous and Ader's subsequent association with failure, romantic conceptualism, and the mythology of the "artist loser": Bas Jan Ader — Estate / Meliksetian | Briggs
• Josef Strau — artist and author of "The Nonproductive Attitude," one of the central intellectual reference points for the exhibition: Josef Strau — Whitney Museum
• Christopher Williams - https://www.davidzwirner.com/artists/christopher-williams
• Lawrence Weiner - https://www.mariangoodman.com/artists/70-lawrence-weiner/
• Günther Förg - https://www.hauserwirth.com/artists/19427-gunther-forg/
• Martin Kippenberger - https://www.maxhetzler.com/artists/martin-kippenberger
• Albert Oehlen - https://gagosian.com/artists/albert-oehlen/
• Bennett Simpson - https://heni.com/news?artist=Bennett%20Simpson
• Hannah Arendt - https://hac.bard.edu/about/hannaharendt/
• Sigmund Freud - https://www.freud-museum.at/en/
• Dan Peterman - http://www.danpeterman.com/
• Michelle Grabner - https://www.jamescohan.com/artists/michelle-grabner
• Josh Kline - https://www.lissongallery.com/artists/josh-kline

Institutions / places

• GRAY Chicago
• Renaissance Society
• Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society
• University of Chicago
• Northwestern University
• University of Illinois Chicago
• School of the Art Institute of Chicago
• Columbia College Chicago
• Art Institute of Chicago
• MCA Chicago
• ICA Boston
• Regards Gallery

Image:

Dieter Roelstraete and Abigail Winograd

Photo by Robert Chase Heishman. Image courtesy of

GRAY Chicago/New York

Blurb: Daniel Tucker interviews Georgia Kotretsos about her work with the ΤΗΕ ΤΕΛΟΣ SOCIETY which is conceived of as a Arts & Culture Research Lab Observatorium with projects throughout Greece and beyond. This interview was conducted at the Twenty-First International Conference on the Arts in Society conference "Modeling Life Systems: Art, Algorithms, Ecologies" at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece. Bio:

Georgia Kotretsos is a visual artist, researcher, the founder of the nonprofit organization THE ΤΕΛΟΣ SOCIETY, Arts & Culture Research Lab Observatorium, in Athens, Greece and the publisher of TTS Press, which operates in the field of cultural studies and art research in Greece, the Balkans, the Mediterranean, and the Middle East. TTS focuses on the Greek periphery, the islands, and remote areas. It creates interdisciplinary teams tailored for each project, working collaboratively on site-specific intangible projects that uncover the unique aspects of each locale.

TTS publications are available at the following bookstores: Politeia, Ianos, Museum of Cycladic Art, Iambos, Pixel,and Public (online). Through these endeavors, THE TEΛΟΣ SOCIETY highlights the importance of contemporary art and cultural heritage while fostering new creative perspectives and audiences.

She holds an MFA in Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (USA, 2004), where she studied on a full merit-based scholarship, and a BFA from the Durban Institute of Technology in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa (2000), where she relocated as a teenager during the country's post-apartheid transition.

Her work systematically critiques conventional theoretical positions on viewing and perceiving artworks, seeking—through liberatory and anarchic visual practices—to reveal that the experience of viewing is site-specific, and that the emancipation of the viewer is a crucial source of artistic knowledge. Her research-based approach—whether in the form of artwork, text, or interview—resists traditional forms and historical modes of acquiring knowledge, proposing alternative methodologies for its creation and reception.

Her work has been presented both in Greece and internationally, including at the Onassis Art Center and the Asia Society in New York, the 4th Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, the Tinguely Museum (Basel), La Kunsthalle (Mulhouse), the Macedonian Museum of Contemporary Art (Thessaloniki), and the Contemporary Art Museum of St. Louis. She has held seven solo exhibitions and participated in numerous significant international initiatives, including the 56th Venice Biennale, MediaImpact in Moscow, and FIELD MEETING in New York.

From 2006 to 2010, she co-founded the independent art space Boots Contemporary Art Space in St. Louis, USA—an alternative contemporary art laboratory—and served as editor-in-chief of BootPrint, a biannual journal by and for artists. From 2009 to 2013, she served as a columnist for Art21 Magazine of PBS Arts Feature in New York, with her column Inside the Artist's Studio. In 2014, her writing was also published on LABKULTUR.TV in Germany. In 2019, Kotretsos published a report on the arts in Greece reflecting on the decade of recession 2008-18 entitled "Athens is the Only Cave in the World that has a Skylight" for the Field Journal in the US.

Her works are held in private collections, including the National Bank of Greece, the Mamidakis Foundation, and others.

More information about her work can be found at: www.georgiakotretsos.com | www.thetelossociety.com

Georgia Kotretsos portrait for RTIN by Kostas Pappas

and the TTS Logo

Duncan MacKenzie and Brian Andrews sit down with artist Claire Ashley at the Door County Contemporary Art Fair for a conversation that wanders from broken-down minivans to Scottish standing stones, from inflatable sculpture to protest aesthetics, and from the economics of artistic survival to the philosophy of color.

Ashley discusses nearly two decades of building monumental inflatable sculptures that refuse to stay still—works that exist somewhere between architecture, bodies, creatures, performance, and public intervention. They explore why artists should embrace experimentation, why humor can be politically powerful, and how softness, absurdity, and vulnerability can become serious sculptural strategies.

Links

• Claire Ashley — https://clairehelenashley.com/

• Door County Contemporary Art Fair — https://www.doorcountycontemporary.com/

• Lee Bontecou — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Bontecou

• Nick Cave — https://nickcaveart.com/Main/Intro.html

• Paul McCarthy —https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_McCarthy

• José Lerma — https://kavigupta.com/artists/42-jose-lerma/

• Weisman Art Museum — https://wam.umn.edu/

• Cameron Art Museum — https://cameronartmuseum.org/

• Saint Kate – The Arts Hotel — https://www.saintkatearts.com/

• Callanish Standing Stones — https://www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/calanais-standing-stones/

• Isle of Lewis — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isle_of_Lewis

Duncan MacKenzie and Brian Andrews sit down with artist, curator, arts administrator, and Door County Contemporary co-founder Jaymee Harvey Willms for an unexpectedly personal and funny conversation.

What begins as a discussion about goats unfolds into an exploration of grief, religious deconstruction, contemporary art, and the rituals we create to survive profound loss.

Once a painter immersed in saturated color, Jaymee found herself unable to tolerate color at all, turning instead toward broken ceramics, white paint, damaged objects, and sculptures that ask what it means for something broken to continue functioning.

Links

Jaymee Harvey Willms

http://www.jaymeeharveywillms.com/

Door County Contemporary

https://www.doorcountycontemporary.com/

Familiar (Milwaukee)

https://www.familiarmke.com/

Walker Art Center

https://walkerart.org/

Mary Gabriel — Ninth Street Women

https://www.joanmitchellfoundation.org/joan-mitchell/citations/ninth-street-women

Lee Krasner https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lee_Krasner

Jackson Pollock https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackson_Pollock

JoAnne Carson https://joannecarson.com

Adam Frelin https://adamfrelin.com

Hair + Nails https://hairandnailsart.com