Recorded live at the CAB6 × MCA Tailgate

This episode was recorded as part of the Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB6) activation on the plaza of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, where Bad at Sports staged a series of open-air interviews, community dialogues, and tailgate-style broadcasts. Artists, architects, students, and the public intersected in a shared social space designed for porous conversation. Episode 920 features Tony Lewis, whose practice has shaped Chicago's contemporary drawing discourse for more than a decade.

In this conversation, Tony Lewis joins Bad at Sports for an unscripted outdoor interview on the MCA plaza during the Architecture Biennial. The discussion moves fluidly between Lewis's formative years in Chicago, the evolution of his drawing practice, his relationship to language systems (notably shorthand), and the material intelligence behind works that incorporate rubber bands, graphite, or constraint mechanisms.

Lewis reflects on mentorship, studio discipline, the importance of failure and patience, and the way drawing becomes a long-term conversation with materials. He speaks candidly about the Chicago art ecosystem, the emotional dimensions of his practice, and the shifting sense of scale and intimacy in his recent work — including his Louis Bag series and large graphite constructions.

The episode captures an artist thinking in real time about endurance, attention, vulnerability, and artistic friendship.

· Drawing as a full-body practice: constraint, tension, rubber bands, architecture of line.

· Language + shorthand: transcription, coded systems, linguistic compression.

· Chicago as a site of artistic maturation: community, humility, seriousness.

· Material intelligence: graphite as dust, weight, pressure, residue.

· Patience and endurance: long timelines for developing works.

· Professional evolution: moving from iconic early works to quieter, more intimate forms.

· Artistic friendship and trust: collaboration, studio visits, long-running dialogues.

· Shorthand Drawings / Gregg Shorthand–based works

· Rubber band constructions & torn-grid drawings

· Graphite floor drawings / powder dispersion works

· Louis Bag series

· Wall-based large graphite sheets under tension

NAMES DROP-ed

· Tony Lewis - https://massimodecarlo.com/artists/tony-lewis

· Kevin Beasley (referenced indirectly in relation to material practice) - https://caseykaplangallery.com/artists/beasley/

· Nate Young - https://www.moniquemeloche.com/artists/36-nate-young/works/

· Theaster Gates - https://www.theastergates.com/

· Michelle Grabner - https://www.michellegrabner.com/

· Kerry James Marshall - https://jackshainman.com/artists/kerry_james_marshall

· William Pope.L - https://www.miandn.com/artists/pope-l

· Rodney McMillian - https://vielmetter.com/artists/rodney-mcmillian/

· Amanda Williams - https://awstudioart.com/home.html

· Rashid Johnson - https://www.hauserwirth.com/artists/2830-rashid-johnson/

· Charles Gaines - https://www.hauserwirth.com/artists/21845-charles-gaines/

· Torkwase Dyson - https://www.torkwasedyson.com/

· Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (MCA) - https://mcachicago.org/

· Chicago Architecture Biennial (CAB) - https://chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/

· Shane Campbell Gallery - https://www.shanecampbellgallery.com/

· School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) - https://www.saic.edu/

Image Sarah Hudson

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.

From toilets to terracotta, brass casting to bathroom design, Kohler has been quietly incubating radical artistic practice for decades, embedding artists in its factories while JMKAC builds a civic platform for art environments, vernacular traditions, and contemporary experimentation. We talk with artists, administrators, and community members about what makes this ecosystem work — and why Sheboygan might just be the weirdest, most wonderful art town in America.

John Michael Kohler Arts Center @jmkacKohler Arts/Industry Residency Kohler Co. @kohler

Name-Drop

• Jodi Throckmorton - https://curatorsintl.org/about/collaborators/7932-jodi-throckmorton

• Michelle Grabner - https://www.michellegrabner.com/

• John Michael Kohler Arts Center (JMKAC) — https://www.jmkac.org/

• Kohler Arts/Industry Residency — https://www.jmkac.org/arts-industry/

• Kohler Co. — https://www.kohlercompany.com/

• Art Preserve (JMKAC's satellite museum) — https://www.jmkac.org/art-preserve/

• Arts/Industry Alumni (sampled in conversation):

• Beth Lipman — https://www.bethlipman.com/ | @beth_lipman

• Ann Agee — https://www.annageestudio.com/

• Jeffrey Clancy — https://jeffreyclancy.com/home.html

• Ashwini Bhat — https://www.jmkac.org/exhibition/ashwini-bhat-reverberating-self/

• Pao Houa — https://www.jmkac.org/exhibition/pao-houa-her-the-imaginative-landscape/

• Lily Cox-Richard — https://www.jmkac.org/exhibition/water-sprouts-and-remains-an-unfolding/

• Sheboygan community — https://www.townofsheboyganwi.gov/

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.

Ross-Ho reflects on how she mines personal and collective archives, the humor and seriousness in her work, and the ways she uses scale to destabilize the familiar. We also talk about teaching, generational shifts in art-making, and what it means to sustain a practice over the long haul.

Listen & Follow

Amanda Ross-Ho - https://hammer.ucla.edu/made-la-2025/amanda-ross-ho @amandarossho

Name-Drop

• Amanda Ross-Ho — https://www.miandn.com/artists/amanda-ross-ho | @amandarossho

• Mitchell-Innes & Nash (Gallery) — https://www.miandn.com | @miandn_gallery

• Cherry and Martin (Gallery) — https://www.artforum.com/news/los-angeless-cherry-and-martin-gallery-closes-237707/

• MoCA Cleveland — https://www.mocacleveland.org/ | @mocacleveland

• Whitney Biennial — https://whitney.org/exhibitions/the-biennial | @whitneymuseum

• Art Basel — https://www.artbasel.com/?lang=en | @artbasel

• Frieze Art Fair — https://www.frieze.com/fairs/frieze-london | @friezeofficial

• Los Angeles art scene / UCLA — https://www.arts.ucla.edu | @uclarts

• EXPO CHICAGO - https://www.expochicago.com/

• Chicago Architectural Biennial 6 - https://chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/

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.

Since the 1990s, David Lasry and company have been redefining what printmaking can be—working with artists like Carroll Dunham, Elizabeth Peyton, Mel Bochner, Cecily Brown, Terry Winters, Chris Ofili, Dana Schutz, Richard Prince, Chuck Close, Jeff Koons, and yes, even channeling the ghost of Andy Warhol. From delicate gestures to total madness with ink and paper, the studio's collaborations are as unpredictable as they are radical.

We talk risk, scale, failure, and discovery—the alchemy of artist–printer collaborations that make Two Palms a force in contemporary art. Along the way we wander through stories of impossible woodblocks, ink disasters turned into triumphs, and why printmaking might just be the most punk medium of them all.

So pour a glass, sharpen your barens, and get ready to nerd out about the future of prints.

Two Palms https://www.twopalms.us/

@twopalmsnyc

Name-Drop

• Carroll Dunham — https://www.presenhuber.com/artists/carroll-dunham#tab:slideshow

• Elizabeth Peyton — https://www.davidzwirner.com/artists/elizabeth-peyton

• Mel Bochner — http://www.melbochner.net/

• Cecily Brown — https://gagosian.com/artists/cecily-brown/

• Terry Winters —https://www.terrywinters.org/

• Chris Ofili — https://www.davidzwirner.com/artists/chris-ofili/survey

• Dana Schutz — https://www.davidzwirner.com/artists/dana-schutz

• Richard Prince — http://www.richardprince.com/

• Chuck Close — https://www.pacegallery.com/artists/chuck-close/

• Jeff Koons — https://www.jeffkoons.com/

• Two Palms — https://www.twopalms.us/

• Marilyn Minter — https://www.twopalms.us/featured-works/marilyn-minter

• Stanley Whitney — https://www.twopalms.us/featured-works/stanley-whitney

• Ana Benaroya — https://www.twopalms.us/featured-works/ana-benaroya

• David Paul Lasry — https://www.nga.gov/artists/21067-david-paul-lasry

• Alex Slattery — https://www.instagram.com/alexslattery/

• EXPO CHICAGO - https://www.expochicago.com/

• Chicago Architectural Biennial 6 - https://chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/

Institutions that love these prints:

• Whitney Museum of American Art — https://whitney.org/

• MoMA — https://www.moma.org/

• The Met — https://www.metmuseum.org/

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.

Artists & Writers

• Alex Ross — https://www.alexrossart.com/ | @alexrossart

• Neal Adams – https://nealadams.com/

• George Pérez – https://www.tcj.com/george-perez-1954-2022/

• Jack Kirby – https://kirbymuseum.org/

• Dave McKean – https://www.davemckean.com/

• Neil Gaiman — neilgaiman.com | @neilhimself

• Chris Ware – https://art21.org/artist/chris-ware/

• Jim Lee — https://www.dc.com/talent/jim-lee @jimlee

• Todd McFarlane — https://mcfarlane.com/ @toddmcfarlane

• Erik Larsen — https://imagecomics.com/creators/erik-larsen @eriklarsen1138

• John Tobias (Mortal Kombat) – https://www.mobygames.com/person/3326/john-tobias/

• Tim Bradstreet — https://www.splashpageart.com/artistgalleryroom.asp?artistid=83 @timbradstreet

• Frank Casey (Ross's Superman model) – chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://news.wttw.com/sites/default/files/article/file-attachments/The%20process_Ross%20at%20work.pdf

Institutions & Companies

• Dunn Museum (Libertyville, IL) — https://www.lcfpd.org/museum/ @lcfpd

• Marvel Comics — marvel.com | @marvel

• DC Comics — dc.com | @dccomics

• American Academy of Art (Chicago) —

• Leo Burnett (advertising) – https://dev.leoburnett.com/

• Now Comics (Chicago, defunct)

• Eclipse Comics (defunct)

• FASA (publisher of Shadowrun, BattleTech) – https://shop.fasagames.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=68

• Mortal Kombat franchise — https://www.mortalkombat.com/en-us @mortalkombat

Pop Culture References

• Kingdom Come (DC) – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_Come_(comics)

• Marvels (Marvel) – https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/the-marvels/umc.cmc.6nb1ii3n99o7rewjyq8whcsuu

• Shadowrun RPG – https://store.catalystgamelabs.com/collections/shadowrun

• Vampire: The Masquerade (White Wolf) – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vampire:_The_Masquerade

• The Boys (Amazon Prime) – https://www.primevideo.com/detail/The-Boys/0KRGHGZCHKS920ZQGY5LBRF7MA

• Invincible (Image Comics / Amazon) – https://www.amazon.com/INVINCIBLE-SEASON-1/dp/B08WJN83XZ

• Peacemaker (HBO) – https://www.hbomax.com/shows/peacemaker-2022/a939d96b-7ffb-4481-96f6-472838d104ca

• Brightburn (film) – https://tv.apple.com/us/movie/brightburn/umc.cmc.4pkvqa1b6mf30wtx66vor37fq

Image: John Weinstein

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. The discussion moves between personal history and systemic critique. Schachter recounts the role of art in surviving trauma, loss, and addiction, and why surrounding himself with works by others has been both solace and education. He reflects on the stubborn conservatism of the market, celebrity crossovers from Johnny Depp to Julian Schnabel, and the tension between wanting freedom and the systems that resist it. For Schachter, art is both a lifeline and a way to comment on the world's chaos — a practice rooted in generosity, curiosity, and contradiction. This episode captures him at his most reflective and most biting, moving from humor to vulnerability and back again.

• Schachter's first encounters with Twombly, Rauschenberg, and Frankenthaler at the National Gallery.

• The shock of Andy Warhol's estate sale in 1988.

• Dealer-to-dealer hustling as an unlikely entry into art.

• Why "there are no rules" is his best definition of being an artist.

• The paradox of an art world that markets rebellion but runs on tradition.

Andy Warhol I.M. Pei, https://www.pcf-p.com/about/i-m-pei/ Chase Manhattan Bank, https://www.jpmorganchase.com/about/art-collection Christie's, https://www.christies.com/en Sotheby's, https://www.sothebys.com/en/ Phillips Auction House, https://www.phillips.com/ Patrick Drahi, https://www.artnews.com/art-collectors/top-200-profiles/patrick-drahi/ Leonard Lauder, https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/leonard-lauder-sothebys-klimt-matisse-1234751922/ The Pritzker family, https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/pritzker-art-collection-sothebys-breuer-1234751864/ Elaine Wynn, https://www.christies.com/en/events/the-collection-of-elaine-wynn Wyatt Kline, https://unframed.lacma.org/2014/01/28/contemporary-friends-acquire-ten-new-works-by-artists-from-around-the-world Alex Burns, Felix Reuter (Ryder), https://felixreuter.bandcamp.com/ Guerrilla Girls, https://www.guerrillagirls.com/ Old Friends Gallery, https://www.oldfriendsgallery.com/ David Letterman, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Letterman The Suburban, http://www.thesuburban.org/

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. What begins as a conversation about Schachter's exhibition at Old Friends Gallery — featuring chicken-assisted artworks and bronze casts forged in Slovenia — quickly expands into a meditation on the art world itself. Schachter reflects on his collaborations, his obsession with foundries, and his refusal to keep resources secret. The group debates the zero-sum mentality of the art market, why artists sabotage themselves, and how absurd projects (sometimes with actual chickens) can be the most serious acts of art-making. Equal parts candid and comedic, the conversation cuts across auctions, art fairs, and the everyday realities of teaching. Expect reflections on generosity vs. gatekeeping, the fragility of the art system, and what it means to make art that is more conceptual than commercial.

• Chickens as collaborators and muses.

• The foundry in Slovenia that casts Rudolf Stingel's panels.

• Why keeping fabricators secret is a sign of weakness.

• Auctions as democratizing, even anarchic, art spaces.

• The necessity of art in a divided and compassion-starved world.

Kenny Scharf, https://kennyscharf.com/ Kenny Schachter, https://www.kennyschachter.art/ Bianca Bova, https://www.biancabovagallery.com/ Billy Connolly, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Connolly Rudolf Stingel, https://gagosian.com/artists/rudolf-stingel/ Tobias Rehberger, https://pedrocera.com/artists/tobias-rehberger Paul Thek, https://whitney.org/exhibitions/paul-thek Giacometti, https://www.moma.org/artists/2141-alberto-giacometti Jerry Saltz, https://nymag.com/author/jerry-saltz/ Cy Twombly, https://cytwombly.org/ Jasper Johns, https://whitney.org/artists/653 Robert Rauschenberg, https://www.rauschenbergfoundation.org/ Joan Mitchell, https://www.joanmitchellfoundation.org/joan-mitchell Helen Frankenthaler, https://gagosian.com/artists/helen-frankenthaler/ Georgia O'Keeffe, https://www.okeeffemuseum.org/ Andy Warhol, https://www.warhol.org/ Joseph Beuys, https://walkerart.org/collections/artists/joseph-beuys Sigmar Polke, https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/sigmar-polke-2213 John Cage, https://www.johncage.org/ Devendra Banhart, https://devendrabanhart.com/ Brad Pitt, https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2022/09/19/brad-pitt-debuts-his-sculptures-in-finland Cindy Sherman, https://www.hauserwirth.com/hauser-wirth-exhibitions/cindy-sherman/ Robert Longo, https://www.robertlongo.com/ Julian Schnabel, https://www.julianschnabel.com/ Old Friends Gallery, https://www.oldfriendsgallery.com/

This week, Bad at Sports reconnects with one of Chicago's most beloved curators and cultural instigators Ox-Bow School of Art's Executive Director, Shannon Stratton. From founding Threewalls to serving as Chief Curator at the Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) in New York, Stratton's career is a masterclass in weaving together artists, audiences, and institutions.

We talk about building spaces for experimental practices, sustaining feminist and craft-centered discourse, and what it means to return to Chicago after reshaping the curatorial conversation nationally. Stratton dives into the ethics of hospitality, the politics of craft, and why sometimes the most radical thing you can do is set the table.

Recorded live at EXPO 2025 in the loving space provided by the Chicago Architectural Biennial 2025

Photo by Dominique Muñoz @domo23

Name-Drop

• Shannon R. Stratton - https://www.shannonraestratton.com/about

• Threewalls — https://three-walls.org/

• Museum of Arts and Design (MAD) —https://madmuseum.org/

• Haystack Mountain School of Crafts —https://www.haystack-mtn.org/

• MCA Chicago — https://mcachicago.org/

• Textile Society of America —https://textilesocietyofamerica.org/

• The Center for Craft — https://www.centerforcraft.org/

• Naomi Beckwith (curator) — https://www.guggenheim.org/about-us/staff/naomi-beckwith

• Julia Bryan-Wilson (art historian) — https://arthistory.columbia.edu/content/julia-bryan-wilson

• Jenni Sorkin (art historian) — https://arthistory.ucsb.edu/people/jenni-sorkin

• EXPO CHICAGO - https://www.expochicago.com/

• Chicago Architectural Biennial 6 - https://chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/

This week Bad at Sports goes full meta, talking about talking about art. We sit down with Ben Davis, National Art Critic for Artnet News and author of 9.5 Theses on Art and Class, to unpack the state of art criticism in 2025. Davis has been one of the sharpest voices charting the relationship between culture, economics, and media—at once insider, outsider, and always keeping his mom in mind.

From the collapse of traditional publishing to the weird vacuum left by social media, Davis doesn't just describe the cracks in the system—he names them, theorizes them, and points to where something new might emerge. We talk ZIRP (zero-interest-rate phenomena), the rise of click-driven media, what AI means for art, and why communities matter more than markets.

Listen & Follow

Ben Davis on Artnet News - https://news.artnet.com/search/Ben+Davis

@benstoppable

https://www.benadavis.com/

Name-Drop

• Artnet News — news.artnet.com https://news.artnet.com/search/
• Brooklyn Rail — brooklynrail.org
• AI / ChatGPT — openai.com/chatgpt
• Neil Young — neilyoungarchives.com
• Slayer — slayer.net

Image care of... https://c4aa.org/our-research/interviews/ben-davis/

Recorded live from the Chicago Architectural Biennial's booth at EXPO Chicago, Bad at Sports tailgates with artist Edra Soto and designer Dan Sullivan—Chicago's unofficial art-world power couple. Soto unpacks her first solo art fair booth at Engage Projects, where monoblock plastic chairs, airbrushed T-shirts, and Puerto Rican vernacular architecture collide with memory, loss, and celebration. Sullivan, founder of Navillus Woodworks, riffs on craft, Ikea hacks, and the business of making high-end furniture while moonlighting as Soto's collaborator and fabricator. "Dan helps."

What starts as a playful conversation about paparazzi, beer coolers, and chairs spirals into a meditation on grief, Puerto Rican cultural identity, and the design politics of everyday objects. Along the way, we hit Bad Bunny, the Bear restaurant, euphemisms around death, Catholic ritual, and the French (yes, the French). We close out with music talk—Sullivan on his bands Nadnavillus and Arriver—and a standing invitation for Bad at Sports to share the stage.

Death, dying, lawn chairs, and punk rock. Welcome to EXPO.

Artists & Designers

• Edra Soto
  • Instagram: @edrasoto
  • https://edrasoto.com/home.html
• Dan Sullivan / Navillus Woodworks
  • Instagram: @navillus_woodworks
  • https://navilluswoodworks.com/
• Ryan Peter Miller
  • Instagram: @ryanpetermiller
  • http://ryanpetermiller.com/
• Miguel Aguilar (Kane One)
  • Instagram: @kane_one_
  • kane-1.com
  • https://www.3arts.org/artist/miguel-aguilar/
• Susan Gomes
• George Ortiz
  • Instagram: @georgeortizphotography
  • https://www.georgeortizphotography.com/
• Bad Bunny
  • Instagram: @badbunnypr
  • https://www.vox.com/today-explained-podcast/459095/bad-bunny-puerto-rico-residency-history

Institutions / Venues / Events

• Engage Projects
• Instagram: @engageprojects
• https://www.engage-projects.com/

• Chicago Architecture Biennial
• Instagram: @chicagoarchitecturebiennial
• https://chicagoarchitecturebiennial.org/

• EXPO Chicago
• Instagram: @expochicago
• expochicago.com
• WBEZ
• Instagram: @wbezchicago
• wbez.org/about
• 105.5 FM Lumpen Radio (WLPN‑LP)
• Instagram: @lumpenradio
• lumpenradio.com
• The Franklin (project space)
• Instagram: @thefranklinoutdoor (site-run by Edra Soto & Dan Sullivan)
• https://thefranklinoutdoor.tumblr.com/ABOUT
• The Bear restaurant (Sullivan furniture)
• This refers to the TV show The Bear on FX,
• Art Basel
• Instagram: @artbasel
• artbasel.com
• The Armory Show
• Instagram: @thearmoryshow
• thearmoryshow.com
• NADA (New Art Dealers Alliance)
• Instagram: @newartdealers
• newartdealers.org
• Color Factory
• Instagram: @colorfactoryco
• colorfactory.co
• Electrical Audio (recording studio)
• Instagram: @electricalaudio
• Tenement Museum (NYC)
• Instagram: @thetenementmuseum
• https://www.tenement.org/

Cultural Figures & References

• Yolanda, Lucetta, Anita (Puerto Rican celebs)
• Gilberto Santa Rosa
• Lil' Kim, Lil' Romeo, Neil Young, Slayer, Jeff Koons

Bands & Music

• Navilus (Dan Sullivan's project)
• https://navilluswoodworks.com/
• Arriver (art-metal band)

image courtesy of Engage Projects