APOLLO AND COMPANY: Augustas Serapinas Puts the Classical Body to Work

At Nottingham Contemporary, artist Augustas Serapinas transforms two large gallery spaces into a hybrid of art school, sculpture studio, and functional fitness centre for his first institutional solo exhibition in England, Physical Culture. The exhibition features steel exercise machines, easels, and sculptural casts referencing art-historical ideals of physical perfection, including replicas of Michelangelo’s David and the Apollo Belvedere. These classical figures, traditionally models of the idealised male body, are repurposed as gym weights—jesmonite sculptural forms replacing conventional plates—inviting visitors to physically engage with art history.

About the exhibition

The origins of Physical Culture lie in Serapinas’s classical art education at the National M. K. Čiurlionis School of Art in Vilnius, where repeated drawing from plaster casts and mastery of technique were central. The exhibition reconstructs student sculptures and academic models alongside replicas of canonical works, drawing parallels between artistic training and physical discipline. Both systems rely on repetition, improvement, and the pursuit of an "ideal," whether through drawing or lifting weights.

Serapinas creates an environment where these behaviours coexist: the gallery functions as both a gym and an art space. Visitors can lift sculptural weights, sketch from casts, or participate in fitness groups and drawing sessions, blurring the boundaries between observer and participant.

Art history and contemporary fitness culture

The exhibition highlights the enduring influence of classical ideals, such as the Apollo Belvedere, which once served as a model of artistic excellence in academies. Serapinas juxtaposes this historical inheritance with contemporary fitness culture—shaped by personal optimisation, wellness trends, and the circulation of idealised bodies online. While standards of beauty are increasingly questioned, the desire for physical perfection persists, reflected in the popularity of gyms and consumer fitness culture.

The exhibition makes these comparisons tangible: visitors can stand beside sculptural fragments, draw them, or lift them, experiencing the weight of art history both literally and metaphorically.

Participation and transformation

Physical Culture refuses to remain static. Local fitness groups, students, and community members activate the space through workshops, exercise sessions, and life-drawing classes. The installation shifts depending on who engages with it: an unoccupied machine reads as sculpture, while a person using it transforms it into functional equipment. This fluidity challenges traditional museum roles—who is performing? The exerciser, the artist, or the observer?

Historical context and contemporary resonance

The exhibition’s humour—such as a classical head replacing a gym weight—carries historical weight. The term "physical culture" emerged from movements linking exercise to discipline, morality, and productivity. Serapinas’s work engages with how bodies have been categorised, trained, and politicised across European history, without reducing it to a single political statement. Instead, it creates a system where artistic education, physical training, classical aesthetics, and contemporary wellness culture intersect.

The result is a reflection of modern obsessions with self-improvement: optimising body, productivity, and health through repetition and documentation. Serapinas places this contemporary instinct alongside art history’s oldest educational method—copying the ideal until it is understood.

Sculpture reimagined

For collectors and viewers accustomed to sculpture as static objects, Physical Culture offers a new proposition. The sculptural forms remain visually dominant, but their meaning emerges from the system around them: a sculpture becomes a weight, a weight becomes a performance tool, and a gym becomes an exhibition. Serapinas challenges the authority of classical ideals not by destroying them, but by inviting visitors to physically engage with their weight and resistance.

Augustas Serapinas: Physical Culture runs from 6 June to 13 September 2026 at Nottingham Contemporary, curated by Katie Simpson and Klara Szafrańska.