Sep 19, 2025
This week on Bad at Sports, Duncan MacKenzie
and Ryan Peter Miller find themselves in Chicago with curator
Bianca Bova and the indefatigable Kenny Schachter — artist, writer,
teacher, collector, and provocateur.
What begins as a conversation about Schachter’s exhibition at Old
Friends Gallery — featuring chicken-assisted artworks and bronze
casts forged in Slovenia — quickly expands into a meditation on the
art world itself. Schachter reflects on his collaborations, his
obsession with foundries, and his refusal to keep resources secret.
The group debates the zero-sum mentality of the art market, why
artists sabotage themselves, and how absurd projects (sometimes
with actual chickens) can be the most serious acts of
art-making.
Equal parts candid and comedic, the conversation cuts across
auctions, art fairs, and the everyday realities of teaching. Expect
reflections on generosity vs. gatekeeping, the fragility of the art
system, and what it means to make art that is more conceptual than
commercial.
• Chickens as collaborators and muses.
• The foundry in Slovenia that casts Rudolf Stingel’s panels.
• Why keeping fabricators secret is a sign of weakness.
• Auctions as democratizing, even anarchic, art spaces.
• The necessity of art in a divided and compassion-starved world.
Kenny Scharf, https://kennyscharf.com/
Kenny Schachter, https://www.kennyschachter.art/
Bianca Bova, https://www.biancabovagallery.com/
Billy Connolly, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Connolly
Rudolf Stingel, https://gagosian.com/artists/rudolf-stingel/
Tobias Rehberger,
https://pedrocera.com/artists/tobias-rehberger
Paul Thek, https://whitney.org/exhibitions/paul-thek
Giacometti,
https://www.moma.org/artists/2141-alberto-giacometti
Jerry Saltz, https://nymag.com/author/jerry-saltz/
Cy Twombly, https://cytwombly.org/
Jasper Johns, https://whitney.org/artists/653
Robert Rauschenberg, https://www.rauschenbergfoundation.org/
Joan Mitchell,
https://www.joanmitchellfoundation.org/joan-mitchell
Helen Frankenthaler,
https://gagosian.com/artists/helen-frankenthaler/
Georgia O’Keeffe, https://www.okeeffemuseum.org/
Andy Warhol, https://www.warhol.org/
Joseph Beuys,
https://walkerart.org/collections/artists/joseph-beuys
Sigmar Polke,
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/sigmar-polke-2213
John Cage, https://www.johncage.org/
Devendra Banhart, https://devendrabanhart.com/
Brad Pitt,
https://www.theartnewspaper.com/2022/09/19/brad-pitt-debuts-his-sculptures-in-finland
Cindy Sherman,
https://www.hauserwirth.com/hauser-wirth-exhibitions/cindy-sherman/
Robert Longo, https://www.robertlongo.com/
Julian Schnabel, https://www.julianschnabel.com/
Old Friends Gallery, https://www.oldfriendsgallery.com/