At Nottingham Contemporary, the gym has entered the museum — but the weights have been replaced by fragments of art history. Lithuanian artist Augustas Serapinas has transformed two of the institution’s largest gallery spaces into something caught between an art school, a sculpture studio and a functioning fitness centre. Physical Culture, his first institutional solo exhibition in England, brings together steel exercise machines, easels and sculptural casts that reference everything from student studies to some of Western art’s most familiar ideals of physical perfection. Among them are replicas derived from Michelangelo’s David and the Apollo Belvedere, figures that have spent centuries functioning as models of the idealised male body. Here, however, their authority is subjected to a rather different form of pressure. They become weights.
ARTICLES
As Hauser & Wirth’s landmark exhibition of the Eileen Harris Norton Collection enters its final weekend in Los Angeles, ARTCOLLECTORNEWS looks at what one of America’s most influential collectors can teach us about building a collection with conviction.
The most influential decisions shaping the future of art are rarely made in auction rooms or beneath the glare of international art fairs. They happen quietly, often behind the closed doors of museum acquisition committees, curatorial departments and scholarly research centres. As museums around the world rethink what they collect and why they collect it, they are doing something far more significant than expanding their collections—they are redefining art history itself.
Collectors with a passion for Impressionism have a compelling reason to look toward Normandy this summer. The Musée d'Art Moderne André Malraux (MuMa) in Le Havre has assembled approximately one hundred early works by Claude Monet, revealing the artist's remarkable development before the emergence of Impressionism.
The Royal Academy Summer Exhibition remains one of the art world's most accessible entry points for collectors seeking emerging talent alongside internationally recognised artists. This year's exhibition features more than 1,800 works selected under the theme of "Interconnectedness," offering painting, sculpture, photography and installation across multiple galleries.
Red flags, endless swiping and the fear of choosing wrong: ON REPEAT brings together works by Marc-Aurèle Debut examine the romantic consequences of living in an age of infinite options. Through a series of visually striking installations and sculptures, the exhibition transforms the habits of digital culture into a sophisticated meditation on desire, vulnerability and the increasingly elusive search for connection.