The work of Michail Pirgelis (*1976) updates the traditions of post-minimalism, the readymade and conceptual art while simultaneously resisting them. His process usually begins with found materials from aircraft cemeteries in California and Arizona, where disused passenger planes wait to be dismantled and recycled. The Cologne-based artist explores the limits of our understanding of objects, while radically expanding our experience of the sculptural.

Michail Pirgelis
Opaque Surfaces
Sprüth Magers and Verlag der Buchhandlung Walther und Franz König
The book Opaque Surfaces presents the rich oeuvre of Michail Pirgelis, spanning more than 20 years. It is the artist's first monograph to focus on works that address the painterly aspect of his sculptural oeuvre and locate them in the context of Land Art, Minimal Art, and Conceptual Art.
Pirgelis sources his material from airplanes, decommissioned carcasses mostly found in the Mojave Desert. However, in a process of meticulous abstraction, he subverts the specificity of the airplane's husk. His method engages shape and surface head-on, exposing marginal details and working toward the bare aluminum. The artist explores the limits of our understanding of objects and radically expands our experience of the sculptural.
The catalog is published with texts by Camila McHugh, Nicolaus Schafhausen and a preface by Tenzing Barshee.
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