Bad at Sports

Duncan MacKenzie and Ryan Peter Miller finally welcome painter, educator, and perennial instigator Tyson Reeder to Bad at Sports.
Recorded during Door County Contemporary Art Fair, the discussion wanders through the history of Milwaukee's DIY art scene, the legendary Dark Fair, artist-run culture, teaching, painting, collaboration, and the productive tension between sincerity and absurdity.
Reeder reflects on organizing exhibitions as artistic experiments rather than scholarly declarations, describing curating as "a speculative mindset" where the question is always what if? 
The conversation also explores painting's unique solitude, collaborative work with his brother Scott Reeder, the role of humor in contemporary art, regional artistic identity, materiality after the pandemic, why artists still need to stand in front of paintings, and how drawing together can become an antidote to digital isolation.
 
Links
Tyson Reeder
https://canadanewyork.com/artists/tyson-reeder
Scott Reeder
https://canadanewyork.com/artists/scott-reeder
Canada Gallery
https://canadanewyork.com/
Door County Contemporary Art Fair
https://www.doorcountycontemporary.com/
Process Print Shop
https://process-process.com/
Swiss Institute
https://www.swissinstitute.net/
White Columns
https://whitecolumns.org/
Threewalls
https://three-walls.org/
Green Gallery
http://www.thegreengallery.biz/
Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture
https://www.skowheganart.org/

This week Duncan MacKenzie and Brian Andrews sit down with artist Sophia Chai at the Door County Contemporary Art Fair to discuss photography that insists on becoming something else. Working between painting, sculpture, installation, and large-format analog photography, Chai creates images that challenge our assumptions about perspective, representation, and the mechanics of seeing itself. 
The conversation moves from camera obscuras and four-by-five view cameras to Plato's Allegory of the Cave, cave painting, Korean language, immigration, and the colonial language embedded within photographic practice. Chai reflects on transforming her graduate studio into a walk-in camera obscura after September 11th, collaborating with architectural space rather than simply depicting it, and asks whether photography might become a practice of witnessing rather than capturing.
Name Drops & Links
Sophia Chai – https://www.sophiachai.com

Hair + Nails – https://hairandnailsart.com/

University of Illinois Chicago School of Art & Art History – https://artandarthistory.uic.edu/

Kerry James Marshall – https://www.davidzwirner.com/artists/kerry-james-marshall

Judith Kirshner – https://stories.mcachicago.org/speaker/judith-kirshner/

Plato – https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/plato/

Camera Obscura – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camera_obscura

Plato's Allegory of the Cave – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allegory_of_the_cave

Jeff Wall – https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/artist/jeff-wall

Barbara Kasten – https://barbarakasten.net/

Johannes Vermeer – https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/rijksstudio/artists/johannes-vermeer

Peter Jackson – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Jackson

The Lord of the Rings – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lord_of_the_Rings_(film_series)

Tanner MacArthur joins Bad at Sports live from Door County Contemporary for a conversation that begins with secret fry sauce recipes and somehow ends with the shape of Delaware as a sandwich-eating methodology.
MacArthur discusses his dual role as both artist and gallerist through his Milwaukee project space, Addendum, founded alongside James Stepanek as an extension of No Instructions Gallery. The conversation moves through contemporary painting, Midwestern DIY culture, artist-run spaces, collecting habits in the Midwest, labor history, and the strange but fertile ground between formal abstraction and dumpster diving.
Tanner speaks about his own assemblage-based painting practice, his evolution from hard-edge abstraction into sculptural wall works built from salvaged materials, and his desire to reconnect with painting's possibilities through color, surface, and material experimentation.
The discussion also highlights a growing generation of Milwaukee artists creating new spaces and opportunities outside traditional institutions, including apartment galleries, publishing projects, and experimental exhibition venues.
Name Drops and Links:
Tanner MacArthur – https://www.tannermacarthur.com/

Addendum Gallery – https://addendum.gallery/

No Instructions Gallery – https://www.noinstructs.com/

Martyna Alexander – https://www.instagram.com/martyna_alexander

Meg White (artist) – https://www.meganwhite.work/

Tony Conrad – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tony_Conrad

Lawrence University – https://www.lawrence.edu/

University of Wisconsin–Madison – https://www.wisc.edu/

University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee Peck School of the Arts – https://uwm.edu/arts/

Experimental Sculpture Room (ESR) – https://experimentalsculptureroom.com/

Milwaukee Art Museum – https://mam.org/

Gertrude Abercrombie – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gertrude_Abercrombie

Kim Sajet – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Sajet

Door County Contemporary – https://www.doorcountycontemporary.com/

This episode on Bad at Sports, Duncan MacKenzie, Ryan Peter Miller, and Brian Andrews sit down with artist, organizer, and Door County Contemporary co-founder Shane Walsh at the close of another sunny and slightly delirious weekend in Door County.
The conversation ranges from the growth of the Door County Contemporary fair, the peculiar magic of creating a temporary art community in Wisconsin, and the challenge of building an audience for contemporary art outside major metropolitan centers. Along the way, Shane discusses his own abstract painting practice, the virtues of Detroit-style pizza, and why a successful art fair might really just be "arts summer camp."
Shane talks about the evolution of Door County Contemporary from its inaugural edition into a larger and more ambitious event, reflecting on how local partnerships, community engagement, and a relaxed atmosphere have helped make the fair feel distinct from the larger art-world circuit.
The crew also dives into Shane's own painting practice: lush, unhinged abstractions informed equally by modernist painting histories and the visual language of 1990s punk culture. The result is a conversation about painting, community, and finding ways to make art experiences feel meaningful, generous, and fun.
Name Drops and Links:
Shane Walsh – https://shanewalshpaintings.com/home.html

Door County Contemporary – https://www.doorcountycontemporary.com/

Pen Art School of Door County – https://peninsulaschoolofart.org/

OS Projects – https://www.osprojects.art/

Willem de Kooning – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willem_de_Kooning

Helen Frankenthaler – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Frankenthaler

Johnny Carson – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnny_Carson

This week Duncan MacKenzie and Ryan Peter Miller head north to the Door County Contemporary Art Fair to sit down with artist, curator, writer, gallerist, and all-around art evangelist Shane McAdams.
Broadcasting from a gazebo in Door County, Wisconsin, the conversation ranges from the weather, custard, and pontoon boats to larger questions about why contemporary art struggles to reach broader publics, why the Midwest needs more artist-run infrastructure, and how we might create healthier cultural ecosystems.
McAdams makes the case for a bigger, messier, more porous art world—one where commercial galleries, nonprofits, academia, collectors, artists, and curious newcomers all coexist. 
This is a conversation about building bridges: between Chicago and Minneapolis, between contemporary art and regional audiences, between artists and the merely art-curious. It is also a reminder that art remains one of the few places where genuine meaning-making and community formation can still occur.
Name Drops
Shane McAdams
https://www.shanemcadams.com/
Door County Contemporary Art Fair
https://www.doorcountycontemporary.com/
Real Tinsel Gallery
https://www.realtinsel.com/
Saint Kate – The Arts Hotel
https://www.saintkatearts.com/
Peninsula School of Art
https://www.peninsulaschoolofart.org/
Claire Ashley
https://clairehelenashley.com/
David Letterman
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Letterman
Marcel Duchamp
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcel_Duchamp
Robert Ryman
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Ryman
James Audubon
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_James_Audubon
Mark Glimcher / Pace Gallery
https://www.pacegallery.com/
Peter Buggenhout
https://www.axel-vervoordt.com/gallery/artists/peter-buggenhout
University of Chicago
https://www.uchicago.edu/
University of Georgia Lamar Dodd School of Art
https://art.uga.edu/
Trainspotting
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117951/
Miami Art Week
https://www.miamiartweek.org/