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