CRYIN' AT THE GYM

29.05.25 - 07.09.25

Noel W. Anderson / Holly Bass / Julia Borderie / Camán & Co. / John Feinstein / Mike Fernandez / JJ Guest / Michael Hanna / Jacques Julien / Keerthana Kunnath / Fiona McDonnell / Jil Mandeng / Laurent Perbos / Shamil Tanna

Sport is a stage – of triumph, heartbreak, politics, play, and protest. Since 2017, the Naughton Gallery’s sports exhibition series has explored the cultural power of sport and its deep impact on how we see ourselves and each other. In its seventh instalment, CRYIN’ AT THE GYM brings together artists from around the world whose work speaks to the complex narratives behind the games we watch and play.

From fractured sculptures to bold photography, intricate collage to playful interventions, the exhibition explores how sport intersects with identity, community, and resistance. Whether tackling themes of gender, race, politics, sexuality, or fandom, the featured artists use the aesthetics and iconography of sport to ask urgent questions about contemporary life.

Highlights include depictions of an all-female skate crew in Ethiopia, a confrontation of homophobia within football, and a psychological journey across the Merseyside football divide. Olympic athlete Florence Griffith Joyner and NBA stars emerge as icons of athleticism and style, while also revealing the layered expectations placed on Black bodies in the public eye. Elsewhere, Gaelic football becomes a site of political memory, and a basketball game turns sculptural with every point scored.

The sports exhibition series also celebrates the growing movement of independent sports publishing through a display of some of the most exciting magazines and journals being produced today, bridging the worlds of art, sport, and design in exciting and unexpected ways. Finally, the Naughton Gallery pays tribute to John Feinstein (1955–2025), one of the most notable and prolific sportswriters of all time whose work captured the drama and humanity behind the headlines.

Sport is never just sport. It’s sweat, struggle, spectacle – and sometimes, yes, it’s crying at the gym.

Image: Holly Bass, NWBA #9 (2012)