Bad at Sports Episode 952: Tali Halpern

Bad at Sports Episode 951 has Duncan MacKenzie and Ryan Peter Miller still in Miami for a conversation with Chicago artist Tali Halpern at NADA, representing 1210 Gallery. The conversation spans weaving, sobriety, punk music, queer identity, labor, spectacle, and the ecstatic possibilities of fiber art. Halpern discusses their transition from painting and addiction into weaving, their work with digital looms at Loom Room, and the way embellishment, rhinestones, embroidery, and collage become acts of healing and reconstruction. The episode touches on Chicago's art community, punk aesthetics, club culture, spiritual labor, and the tension between craft traditions and contemporary experimentation.   Name Drops & Links Tali Halpern — https://tali.rocks/ Twelve Ten Gallery — https://twelvetengallery.com/ NADA Miami — https://www.newartdealers.org/ School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC) — https://www.saic.edu/ Loom Room Chicago — https://www.lmrmchicago.com/ Hope Lange — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hope_Lange Gregg Araki — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregg_Araki Nowhere — https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0119809/ Mike Kelley — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Kelley_(artist) Paul McCarthy — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_McCarthy Tracey Emin — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracey_Emin Sylvia Plath — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvia_Plath Elliott Smith — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elliott_Smith Ken Burns — https://www.pbs.org/kenburns/ Nirvana — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nirvana_(band) The B-52's — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_B-52s Guns N' Roses — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns_N%27_Roses Howardena Pindell — https://www.garthgreenan.com/artists/howardena-pindell Melissa Cody — https://www.garthgreenan.com/artists/melissa-cody Cranbrook Academy of Art — https://cranbrookart.edu/ Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art — https://bmoca.org/ The Weaving Mill — https://theweavingmill.com/ Mikey Mosher — https://www.mikeymosher.com/ Cindy Sherman — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cindy_Sherman Noelia Towers — https://www.noeliatowers.com/ The Killers — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Killers  

At NADA Miami, Duncan MacKenzie, Ryan Peter Miller, Tom Sandford and returning guest William Powhida dig into the art world's annual power rituals, the shifting geography of cultural influence, Gulf-state biennials, wealth concentration, and the contradictions of contemporary art's relationship to capitalism. Starting from Powhida's commissioned work for the annual ArtReview Power 100 issue, the conversation encompasses discussions of oligarchy, philanthropy, redistribution, art fairs, nationalism, soft power, artist-run infrastructure, and Powhida's ambitious experimental project, the Zero Art Fair.   William Powhida — https://williampowhida.com/NADA Miami — https://www.newartdealers.org/ ArtReview Power 100 — https://artreview.com/power-100/ Ben Davis — https://www.benadavis.com/ Art Angle Podcast —Art Angle Podcast Nicole Eisenman —https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicole_Eisenman 52 Walker — https://52walker.com/Zero Art Fair — https://zeroartfair.com/Flag Art Foundation — https://www.flagartfoundation.org/

Bad at Sports Episode 947: Justin H. Long Live from the fair circuit heat (not Miami… but spiritually always Miami), Duncan MacKenzie, Ryan Peter Miller, and Tom Sanford catch up with artist Justin H. Long, self-described "original Florida man," to talk boats, comedy, identity, and the strange poetics of nautical culture. Long's sculptural practice moves between deadpan humor and conceptual rigor: a capsized Laser sailboat turned vertical monument, a palm tree replacing its mast, and a title—S.O.S.—that refuses to resolve cleanly into sentiment. From Morse code to yacht club politics, from Spanglish boat names to disaster-relief coolers, Long builds a practice that blends maritime history, Miami mythologies, and a punk-inflected irreverence toward art's seriousness. Also featured in this episode – a CalArts performance art involving chocolate milk vomit, signal flags translating hip-hop lyrics, and why humor still makes the art world uncomfortable. Justin H. Long — https://justinhlong.comDuncan MacKenzie — https://kurasmackenzie.com/Ryan Peter Miller — http://ryanpetermiller.com/Tom Sanford — https://www.tomsanford.art/Lumpen Radio — https://lumpenradio.comFlorida International University — https://www.fiu.eduCalArts (California Institute of the Arts) — https://calarts.eduBaker Hall Gallery — https://bakerhall.art/Spring/Break Art Show — https://www.springbreakartshow.com Design Miami — https://www.designmiami.comKey Biscayne Yacht Club — https://kbyc.orgContemporary Arts Center New Orleans — https://cacno.orgDamien Hirst — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Damien_Hirst Nicole Eisenman — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicole_Eisenman The Simpsons — https://www.thesimpsons.comKids in the Hall — https://www.kidsinthehall.ca  

I don't quite know how to start this. It feels important to repost this interview because of Hilde. Hilde Lynn Helpenstein was a kickass human. "Jerry Gogosian" was a lance aimed directly at our pretensions and self-importance. Through Jerry, Hilde developed an incisive understanding of how the art world works. She created a space where many of us felt seen, derided, embarrassed, challenged, or simply able to laugh at our own reflection. She used Jerry to investigate us, for better and worse. In doing so, she exposed the paradoxes, half-truths, and hypocrisies embedded in what we do and how we choose to spend our lives. I think we should have listened more carefully when she tried to take what she had learned and suggest other ways forward. Hilde fucking loved art. More than almost anything. I know that feeling. She knew something wasn't working and she was trying to understand it, diagnose it, and imagine alternatives. What changed for me in this interview was realizing that we were on the same trip. My friend Chris Johanson used to say, "Trip on it, don't fry on it." It's hard not to fry on the thing you love most, especially when you feel responsible for all of it. Hilde was generous and generative. Sadly, the art world can't love you back. It's a little like summer camp: a temporary bubble of perfection that can be difficult to bring back into everyday life. What Hilde wanted, I think, was for us to find a way to reconnect art to the world outside that bubble, and maybe get over ourselves in the process. I, and all of us at Bad at Sports, will miss our fellow traveler. d.

In this episode of Bad at Sports, recorded at the tail end of a sun-soaked, sweat-drenched, and somehow still magical Miami Art Week, Duncan MacKenzie and Ryan Peter Miller sit down with curator and cultural programmer Esther Park—the force behind this year's public programming at New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA). Park traces her origin story from working the front desk at the Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami to throwing illegal block parties in Wynwood, to shaping NADA's ambitious "Ecologies" program. The conversation spirals (as it should) into art world mythologies, Miami as mirage, the collapse and reinvention of criticism, and why the real work happens far below the visible surface. This is a conversation about infrastructure, community, exhaustion, joy, and why—despite everything—the ecosystem still matters. Esther Park — cultural programmer and curator (NADA Public Programming) Duncan MacKenzie — https://kurasmackenzie.com/ Ryan Peter Miller — http://ryanpetermiller.com/ New Art Dealers Alliance — https://www.newartdealers.org/ Art Basel — https://www.artbasel.com/ Sam Keller — https://www.patrickparrish.com/artist/sam-keller Knight Foundation — https://knightfoundation.org/ Pérez Art Museum Miami — https://www.pamm.org/ Heather Hubbs — https://www.newartdealers.org/ Mel Chin — https://melchin.org/ Jerry Saltz — https://nymag.com/author/jerry-saltz/ Roberta Smith — https://www.nytimes.com/by/roberta-smith Peter Schjeldahl — https://www.newyorker.com/contributors/peter-schjeldahl Christopher Knight — https://www.latimes.com/people/christopher-knight Hyperallergic — https://hyperallergic.com/ Ben Davis — https://www.benadavis.com/ Artnet — https://www.artnet.com/ Brad Troemel — https://bradtroemel.com/ Jerry Gogosian — https://www.instagram.com/jerrygogosian/ Lori Waxman — https://60wrdmin.org/home.html KAWS — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaws Alec Monopoly — https://www.alecmonopoly.com/ Beeple — https://www.beeple-crap.com/  

Recorded live in the blazing Miami heat (seriously, surface-of-the-sun conditions), Duncan, Ryan, and crew sit down with Heather Hubbs, Executive Director of the New Art Dealers Alliance (NADA), for a conversation about art fairs, artist ecosystems, and what it actually means to build a sustainable contemporary art community. From CBD waters and early-morning whiskey to global art economies and the future of ceramics, this episode captures Bad at Sports at its most "tailgate meets art world summit." Heather walks us through NADA's evolution from a member-driven trade association into a flexible, responsive platform that supports galleries, artists, and experimental projects across Miami, New York, and beyond. The conversation digs into post-pandemic market shifts, the logic behind fair restructuring (goodbye Sunday drag), and how Warsaw is unexpectedly a site of mass public hunger for art. Along the way: project spaces as incubators, ceramics as a rising force, and the enduring legacy of Chicago art world figures who shaped how fairs operate today. Also: inflatable dancing airmen. Chickens. Buttholes. You know, professionalism. New Art Dealers Alliance — https://www.newartdealers.org/ White Columns — https://www.whitecolumns.org/ Matthew Higgs — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_Higgs 47 Canal — https://47canal.us/ Bureau — https://bureau-inc.com/ Green Gallery — http://www.thegreengallery.biz/ Good Weather — https://www.instagram.com/goodweather.llc/?hl=en Blade Study — https://bladestudy.net/ Rhona Hoffman — https://www.rhoffmangallery.com/ Art Chicago — https://www.expochicago.com/ SOFA Chicago — https://www.sofaexpo.com/ John Riepenhoff — https://www.johnriepenhoff.net/ Celebrity Book Club — https://celebritybookclubpodcast.com/  

Chris Succo joins Duncan MacKenzie, Ryan Peter Miller, and Tom Sanford in Miami for a conversation that slides easily from pronunciation jokes into a deep dive on abstraction, immediacy, and the quiet, often unspoken labor of sustaining an art practice. Succo unpacks a studio logic built on contradiction: paintings that feel fast but are deeply considered, surfaces that appear minimal but hold layers of decision-making, and a practice that balances commercial necessity with experimental risk. The conversation ranges across Succo's "white paintings," photographic references, sculptural work in foundries, and the strange economics of being a working painter. Along the way, the crew hits Miami art fair nostalgia, Miley Cyrus backed by The Flaming Lips, and the enduring romance of making something that might never sell. This one is about intuition, material intelligence, and what it actually means to keep going in the studio. Chris Succo - https://chrissucco.com/images/   Mark LeBlanc — https://mleblancchicago.com/ Richard Prince — https://gagosian.com/artists/richard-prince/ Paul McCarthy — https://hauserwirth.com/artists/paul-mccarthy/ Willem de Kooning — https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/willem-de-kooning Bushwick Bill — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bushwick_Bill Miley Cyrus — https://www.mileycyrus.com/The Flaming Lips — https://www.flaminglips.com/MC Serch — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MC_Serch Fugazi — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fugazi Michael Harding Paint — https://www.michaelharding.co.uk/ Gamblin — https://gamblincolors.com/  

Recorded in the sunburnt delirium of Miami, Duncan and crew stumble out of the Midwest and into the heat of the fairs, only to find a familiar sensibility in an unexpected place: Dreamsong. Rebecca Heidenberg joins the conversation to talk about building a gallery ecosystem in Minneapolis that resists isolation and instead fosters dialogue between regional artists and those working in larger art centers like New York and Los Angeles. From this conversation we get a portrait of a space that operates as both a commercial gallery and something closer to a cultural commons, anchored by programming, residency initiatives, and a commitment to community. From the founding logic of Dreamsong to the evolution of the Cloud House residency program, Rebecca outlines a model that prioritizes relationships over market pressure. The conversation moves fluidly between Minneapolis as a site of artistic possibility, the economics of running a gallery outside New York, and the strange spectacle of Miami's art fair ecosystem, including dystopian crypto exhibitions and phantom Lamborghini launches. Along the way: documentary filmmaking in Cuba, the legacy of an art-dealing mother, the emotional labor embedded in artistic practice, and the ongoing tension between "pretty" art and meaningful engagement in a complicated political moment. It's Midwest pragmatism meets art world absurdity. And somehow, it works. Rebecca Heidenberg — https://dreamsong.art/Dreamsong — https://dreamsong.art/Cloud House — https://thecloudhouse.org/Gregory Smith — https://dreamsong.art/Edgar Arceneaux — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edgar_Arceneaux Walker Art Center — https://walkerart.org/Minneapolis College of Art and Design — https://www.mcad.edu/Rachel Collier — https://rachelcollier.com/Hair + Nails — https://hairandnailsart.com/All My Relations Arts — https://allmyrelationsarts.org/ Minneapolis Institute of Art — https://new.artsmia.org/Henry Moore — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Moore Douglas Kearney — https://www.douglaskearney.com/ Art Basel Miami Beach — https://www.artbasel.com/miami-beach Frieze Los Angeles — https://www.frieze.com/fairs/frieze-los-angeles Jean-Michel Basquiat — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean-Michel_Basquiat  

Recorded live at NADA Art Fair, this episode finds the crew in full fair-mode: cramped booths, warm beverages, and the particular energy of artists, curators, and dealers trying to make something real happen in public. Joining the conversation is Amy Kligman, founder of Special Effects Gallery, a Kansas City–based gallery barely out of the gate and already showing at fairs. Alongside Tom Sanford, the conversation moves quickly from logistics and booth banter into something deeper: how artists carry histories, how objects hold people, and how a gallery can function less like a marketplace and more like a host. Kligman's project is both scrappy and intentional. Special Effects Gallery is rooted in Kansas City but outward-facing, acting as a connector, a translation device, and maybe even a love letter to regional practice that deserves a broader stage. The name itself comes from her parents' rural Indiana video store, a place that served as a portal to elsewhere - Special Effects Gallery carries that lineage and seeks out a similar ethos.    Amy Kligman — https://www.specialeffectsgallery.com/  https://www.amykligman.com/Tom Sanford — https://www.tomsanford.art/ Kevin Demery — https://www.kevindemery.com Rashawn Griffin — https://www.instagram.com/ras9s/Charlotte Street Foundation — https://charlottestreet.org/Plug Projects — https://plugprojects.org/Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art — https://nelson-atkins.org/NADA (New Art Dealers Alliance) — https://newartdealers.org/Dana Schutz — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dana_Schutz

From the humid chaos of Miami Art Week, Bad at Sports drops into the garden at NADA for a conversation with two artists from Western Exhibitions: Nanako Kono and Olivia Zubkov. A loose, funny, and surprisingly thoughtful discussion about painting that isn't painting, sculpture that remembers your body, and bathrooms as sites of intimacy, memory, and quiet surveillance. Nanako walks through her hyper-flat, acrylic-based "paintings" that live somewhere between screen, object, and comic logic. Olivia counters with slip-cast porcelain sculptures drawn from domestic life. Towels, tiles, soap dishes, and mirrors become witnesses to the private rituals of living. The conversation drifts between material process, Chicago's influence, comic culture, color as personality, and the strange emotional charge of everyday objects. Along the way, there are riffs on boob lights, mold-making ethics, and whether your bathroom fixtures are silently judging you. Ryan Peter Miller — https://badatsports.comDuncan MacKenzie — https://kurasmackenzie.com/Western Exhibitions — https://westernexhibitions.com Nanako Kono — https://www.nanakokono-rolly.com/ Olivia Zubkov — https://www.oliviazubko.com/ Scott Speh — https://westernexhibitions.com NADA Art Fair — https://newartdealers.orgLumpen Radio — https://lumpenradio.comSchool of the Art Institute of Chicago — https://www.saic.eduUniversity of Nevada, Las Vegas — https://www.unlv.eduRichard Rezac — https://www.richardrezac.com/ Julia Fish — https://juliafish.com/