For Call for Clay, Downing issued open invitations in 2023 and 2025 for participants to send foraged clay, along with letters about where it came from. Published by the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, the resulting book brings together 40 contributors from 19 states and three countries. Part correspondence project, part material archive, it is a portrait of the places we carry around with us—even when they arrive in a Ziploc bag.

The conversation moves from Chicago’s common bricks and a stream beneath Downing’s family home in Baltimore to a mysterious flower-or-gear pressed into an upstate New York sidewalk. There are hand-pinched beads that are also seeds, ceramic tiles embedded in gallery walls, the environmental ethics of taking dirt from the ground, and the industrial operations hidden behind the humble bag of studio clay. Add some kiln-shelf anxiety, colored-pencil drawing on fired ceramics, and an inconclusive effort to determine whether everything is sculpture, and you have a pretty good afternoon at Bad at Sports.

Names Dropped:
Saffronia Downing  –  https://e-saffronia.net/

Ryan Peter Miller  –  https://ryanpetermiller.com/about

Duncan MacKenzie  –  https://badatsports.com/broadcast-staff/duncan-mackenzie/

Brian Andrews  –  https://www.brianandrews.org/

Katherine (Kitty) Ross  –  https://www.saic.edu/profiles/faculty/katherine-ross

Amber Ginsburg  –  https://www.amberginsburg.com/

Lisa Frank  –  https://lisafrank.com/

Pressed Flower  –  https://acreresidency.org/index.php/exhibition/pressed-flower

Call for Clay  –  https://i-n-g-a.com/products/call-for-clay-by-e-saffronia-downing

ACRE Projects  –  https://acreresidency.org/

School of the Art Institute of Chicago — Ceramics  –  https://www.saic.edu/ceramics

Bad Water Gallery (Field Dug Over listing)  –  https://locatearts.org/exhibitions/knoxville/field-dug-over

John Michael Kohler Arts Center  –  https://www.jmkac.org/

Bad at Sports / Bad at Sportscenter  –  https://badatsports.com/

Lumpen Radio (WLPN-LP)  –  https://lumpenradio.com/

Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago  –  https://mcachicago.org/

Wissahickon Valley Park  –  https://fow.org/

Mason Stains — Mason Color Works  –  https://www.masoncolor.com/mason-stains

Trapper Keeper — Mead  –  https://www.mead.com/trapper-keeper-details/

Google Maps  –  https://www.google.com/maps

The occasion is Let’s Go Exploring!, a two-person exhibition bringing together work by longtime friends and studio mates Tony Lewis and Gregory Bae. But what begins as a conversation about an exhibition quickly becomes something more complicated: an exploration of friendship, loss, memory, artistic responsibility, and the strange business of keeping an artist’s work alive after their death.

Tony and Bosco recount the collective efforts to preserve Gregory’s work, from moving the contents of his studio and organizing the artist-led archival project CV to making curatorial decisions that Gregory himself might not have agreed with. What should survive? What gets exhibited? Who has the authority to decide? And how can an archive remain experimental, generous, and alive rather than becoming a monument to a fixed history?

The group considers the ethics of recreating artworks, a bonsai that might be both alive and doomed, Tony’s enormous graphite basketball-court drawing, the politics of Asian American identity, and the sometimes extraordinary generosity of Chicago’s artistic community.

The exhibition’s title comes from the final Calvin and Hobbes comic strip.

Name Drops and links:

• Tony Lewis – https://patrongallery.com/artist/tonylewis/cv
• Bosco Bae – https://boscobae.com/
• Gregory Bae – https://patrongallery.com/artist/gregorybae
• Josh Dihle – https://www.joshdihle.com/
• Robert Chase Heishman – https://www.robertchaseheishman.com/
• Mika Horibuchi – https://patrongallery.com/artist/mikahoribuchi
• Bill Watterson (Calvin and Hobbes) – https://www.gocomics.com/calvinandhobbes
• PATRON Gallery – https://patrongallery.com/
• Let’s Go Exploring! – https://patrongallery.com/exhibitions
• Chicago Works: Gregory Bae, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago – https://mcachicago.org/whats-on/events/talk-24-7-365-a-roundtable-on-the-life-and-work-of-gregory-bae/
• Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago – https://mcachicago.org/
• School of the Art Institute of Chicago – https://www.saic.edu/
• This Thing We Call Art: Gregory Bae – https://www.thisthingwecallart.com/archive/gregory-bae
• Two of a Kind: At Patron, Tony Lewis and Gregory Bae Explore How Friendship Impacts One’s Artwork, Chicago Reader – https://patrongallery.com/press/item797/Two-of-a-kind-At-Patron-Tony-Lewis-and-Gregory-Bae-explore-how-friendship-impacts-ones-artwork

Nudd has spent more than two decades producing a gloriously strange universe of hairy organisms, mutant bodies, psychedelic biological forms, and wonderfully unsettling surfaces. His work moves between painting, drawing, printmaking, video, and, most recently, ceramics. But beneath all the slime, crust, and occasional bodily horror is an artist deeply committed to experimentation, collaboration, and the pleasures of making things.

The conversation begins with Nudd’s long relationship with Chicago’s printmaking community, including his legendary 2009 residency at Spudnik Press with cartoonist Onsmith, where the pair produced more than a thousand prints—and apparently sold none of them.

Nudd describes why he loves Riso’s imperfect surfaces, the magic of working with master printers, his affection for Chicago Imagism, and the importance of preserving uncertainty in the studio. The hosts also investigate whether Nudd’s work is actually gross or not.

The second half finds Nudd reflecting on the unexpected pleasures of ceramics, his work as an elementary school art teacher, creative attention, and the increasingly porous boundaries between his studio, garden, kitchen, compost heap, and classroom.

Nudd’s show opens Nov. 6th, 2026, at Western Exhibition! https://westernexhibitions.com/upcoming-exhibitions/

Recorded at Spudnik Press, Chicago, in conjunction with the closing of the 1st International Milwaukee Riso Invitational.

Name drops and links

Paul Nudd – https://westernexhibitions.com/artist/paul-nudd/

Onsmith – https://www.spudnikpress.org/people/onsmith/

Chris Flynn – https://cflynnprints.com/

Jim Nutt – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jim_Nutt

Peter Saul – https://www.moma.org/artists/5178-peter-saul

Chloe Perkis – https://www.chloe-perkis.com/

Big Black – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Black

Spudnik Press – https://www.spudnikpress.org/

Western Exhibitions – https://westernexhibitions.com/

Hoofprint – https://www.hoofprintchicago.com/

Marz Community Brewing – https://www.marzbrewery.com/

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

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

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

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/