Bad at Sports

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.com
Duncan 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.org
Lumpen Radio — https://lumpenradio.com
School of the Art Institute of Chicago — https://www.saic.edu
University of Nevada, Las Vegas — https://www.unlv.edu

Richard Rezac — https://www.richardrezac.com/
Julia Fish — https://juliafish.com/