This week Bad At Sports debuts its collaborative partnership with the online journal Art Practical. Scott Oliver, who has previously been on the show with the Collective Foundation, sits down with J. Morgan Puett. They discuss Mildred's Lane, a collaborative project with Mark Dion, the revolutionary politics of garments, and reclaiming the term migrant worker. An abridged transcript of the conversation can be found at Art Practical <http://www.artpractical.com/> .

Hooshing and the Nexus of Clothing: A Conversation with J. Morgan Puett
By Scott Oliver 

I met J. Morgan Puett during her Bridge Residency at the Headlands Center for the Arts this past fall. I knew little of her or her work, but was immediately struck by her warmth and charm, and by the language she used to talk about her practice. She refers to it as “a practice of being” in which “an ethics of comportment” defines any engagement she might have—with students, collaborators, participants, fellow artists-in-residence. But also with her son’s teacher or her car mechanic. Terms like “hoosh,” “workstyles (a play on lifestyles),” “algorithm,” “emergent,” “entangled,” and “complexity” pepper Puett’s speech, effectively communicating her expansive approach to art. She doesn’t often mention “social practice,” perhaps because her work has been socially engaged all along. But the term is also insufficient, so is “installation art” (a form her work often resembles). Puett’s work is difficult to summarize. It is sprawling, layered, immersive and open-ended. It is as intellectually rich as it is sensually pleasurable. It is narrative, process-based and participatory. In short, it is meant to be experienced, yet none-the-less fascinating to discuss.

Scott Oliver is a sculptor and project-based artist living and working in Oakland, California. He has written catalogue essays for Southern Exposure, The Present Group, and independent curator Joseph del Pesco. Oliver co-founded Shotgun Review, an on-line source for reviews of Bay Area visual art exhibitions, with del Pesco in 2005 where he was a regular contributor until 2008. He is currently working on an audio walking tour of Oakland’s Lake Merritt.

This week: The third of our NADA shows from Miami. This time Amanda and Duncan talk to Brendan Fowler and Paul Gabrielli.

Brendan Fowler (born 24 March 1978 in Berkeley, California) is a musician, best known for his work under the moniker BARR, based in Los Angeles. He is a regular performer at The Smell, a DIY music venue. He also co-runs Doggpony Records and is a co-editor of ANP (Artist Network Program) Quarterly - an Orange County based arts and culture publication funded by RVCA. He has recently played at the New York performance space, The Kitchen, and has been featured in Artforum Magazine. In 2006 Fowler curated a show at David Kordansky gallery in Los Angeles. New England Roses, a band consisting of Fowler, Sarah Shapiro, and Le Tigre's JD Samson, released their debut, Face Time With Son, in 2005. His new electronic-folk-pop band, Car Clutch, with Ethan Swan, had their debut performance in fall of 2006.

New York-based artist Paul Gabrielli offers work of quiet maximalism. He approaches sculpture as an act of appropriation, assimilating other media into one comprehensive system. While Gabrielli's practice can be seen as a continuation of his minimalist lineage, his specific objects are infused with a thwarted eroticism of both desire and restraint.

Gabrielli's works straddle the boundaries of sculpture, photography, work on paper and video, experiments in form designed to encapsulate the physical manifestation of a single thought, with all its lyricism and paradox, desire and restraint. His pieces represent both interior visions and the very real destruction of the well-defined and corporeal.

This week Amanda and Duncan rock the Miami area with a three-fer of NADA interviews with Ruba Katrib, Paul Gabrielli, and Atsushi Kaga. They surf the the tricky waters of "The Reach of Realism", the beauty of the everyday, and what you get out of cute Rock. Roll and love. With two brilliant young artists and a dynamite curator! This is the closest I have come to blowing the Sunday posting deadline in years, damn you influenza!

This week Bad at Sports begins a three or maybe four part series that we
produced at NADA (the New Art Dealers Alliance) Art Fair for 2009.

This week Amanda Browder and Duncan MacKenzie we sit down with Heather Hubbs, NADA's Director and Chris Duncan, a San Francisco based artist showing with Baer Ridgway Exhibitions. The conversations span a huge gulf as Heather talks about the roll she played in Chicago,
galvanizing a scene and what she has done with NADA, while Chris talks
about being in the studio, making and what things are like in SF.
Great conversations  to kick off a great series that was produced
inside one of the best fairs in the country.

We produced a set of limited edition Bad at Sports T-Shirts for the
event and have a small number of L, XL, and XXL's (maybe one or 2 mediums or smalls) left which are available from us for $20.00 a
piece.  Contact us at mail@badatsports.com if you are interested.

This week:  The AMANDA BROWDER SHOW! Amanda and Tom start 2010 off with an interview with Miami artists Alain Guerra and Neraldo de la Paz about their collective Guerra de la Paz (awesome composite of their names) about their work, and how clothing can be more than just a shell over one person's nubile body..but a story and a basis for sculptural exploration.

Then, Mike Benedetto returns!!! He offers up a meditation on Steven Seagal, Lawman.

Guerra de la Paz is the composite name of Cuban born, American artist duo Alain Guerra (born 1968) and Neraldo de la Paz (born 1955), who have been collaborating since 1996. They are based in Miami.

Guerra was born in Havana and de le Paz in Matanzas. Guerra de la Paz work in sculpture, installation and photography. Their work references the politics of modern conflict and consumerism alongside symbols of faith; they often use old clothing to build their sculptures.

Photo by Douglas Voisin