Michail Pirgelis – Sprüth Magers

Black and white photo of a person (Michail Pirgelis) in black t-shirt and jeans leaning against a wall with riveted panels and partial 'Alitalia' text visible

Michail Pirgelis. Photo: Mathias Schmitt

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.

The first thing one notices in Pirgelis’s works is their subtle play with the aura of his found materials—materials that could both be considered industrial waste products or civilizational fragments. Larger than life metal objects lean against the walls like strange relics. Large-scale wall works with scratches, traces of paint and varnish have the look of heavy paintings. Floorboards with drilled holes and traces of carpet recall sections of a heavily used studio floor.

Pirgelis makes surprisingly small changes to the materials he finds, leaving the painted surfaces of most of his objects as he found them. He sometimes sands and polishes certain sections, partially removes logos and lettering or exposes rivet patterns. But essentially, the viewer bears witness to a surface marked by signs of wear and weather, by the sun and desert storms over the aircraft cemeteries. These are complex aesthetic surfaces with obvious painterly references, and the artist presents the objects as a form of found abstraction.

Pirgelis’s works derive their forceful presence from a fundamental self-questioning. The objects are not invented or produced, or even labeled in any way by the artist. Nor are they readymades in a strictly post-Duchampian sense, since the objects’ material and form have become entirely detached from their former function, making it almost impossible to discern their origin. The materiality of the works seems strangely familiar, and yet it is impossible to say why or what exactly is familiar about them. They are objects characterized by a deep-seated uncertainty: an uncertainty that leads them to thwart their own objectness and situate themselves on the threshold of non-objectness.

Pirgelis’s oeuvre defies conventional strategies of considering the artwork with startling consistency. Apart from obvious references to minimalism, post-minimalism, and readymades, some of these works recall Gordon Matta-Clark’s heroic dissections of homes and factory buildings or Rosemarie Trockel’s psychosocially charged objects. And yet they still come across as enigmatically uncategorizable. The urgent exclusion of sculptural knowledge in these works triggers a moment of confusion or disquiet in the viewer. What comes into play is an aesthetics of the indefinable, a sensory effect somewhere between rebellion and the sublime. Not least it accounts for a certain beauty—a beauty of emptiness, of things lived and lost, of semantic abandonment and contingency.

David Ostrowski & Michail Pirgelis
To Lose
Leopold-Hoesch-Museum, Düren, March 6–May 29, 2016

Works

Michail Pirgelis
Among the park, 2006

Michail Pirgelis
Among the park, 2006
Aluminum, titanium, lacquer, fiberglass, belts
880 × 380 × 410 cm | 346 1/2 × 149 5/8 × 161 3/8 inches

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Michail Pirgelis
The Modernist, 2019

Michail Pirgelis
The Modernist, 2019
Aluminum, fiberglass, titanium, lacquer, tape
215 × 277 × 35 cm | 84 5/8 × 109 × 13 7/8 inches

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Michail Pirgelis
FUTURA, 2023

Michail Pirgelis
FUTURA, 2023
Aluminum, titanium, lacquer
95 × 63 × 24 cm | 37 3/8 × 24 7/8 × 9 1/2 inches

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Michail Pirgelis
Press Room, 2025

Michail Pirgelis
Press Room, 2025
Aluminum, titanium, lacquer, 3 parts
70 × 90 × 4 cm | 27 5/8 × 35 3/8 × 1 5/8 inches
70 × 90 × 4 cm | 27 5/8 × 35 3/8 × 1 5/8 inches
70 × 61 × 4 cm | 27 5/8 × 24 × 1 5/8 inches

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Michail Pirgelis
Italian Radio, 2019

Michail Pirgelis
Italian Radio, 2019
Aluminum, titanium, lacquer
71 × 95 × 12.5 cm | 28 × 37 3/8 × 5 inches

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Michail Pirgelis
Young Hollywood, 2025

Michail Pirgelis
Young Hollywood, 2025
Aluminum, titanium, lacquer, 3 parts
162 × 199.5 × 3.5 cm | 63 7/8 × 78 1/2 × 1 3/8 inches
162 × 197.5 × 3.5 cm | 63 7/8 × 77 5/8 × 1 3/8 inches
162 × 196 × 3.5 cm | 63 7/8 × 77 1/8 × 1 3/8 inches

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Michail Pirgelis
The Houses III, 2019

Michail Pirgelis
The Houses III, 2019
Aluminum, titanium, lacquer
99 × 90 × 5 cm | 39 × 35 3/8 × 2 inches

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Michail Pirgelis
Pawn House, 2019

Michail Pirgelis
Pawn House, 2019
Fiberglass, aluminum
182 × 203 × 30 cm | 71 5/8 × 80 × 11 7/8 inches

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Michail Pirgelis
A the Giant I, 2024

Michail Pirgelis
A the Giant I, 2024
Aluminum, titanium, lacquer, 3 parts
135.5 × 203 × 4.5 cm | 53 3/8 × 80 × 1 3/4 inches
138 × 354 × 4.5 cm | 54 1/4 × 139 3/8 × 1 3/4 inches
137.5 × 202 × 4.5 cm | 54 1/8 × 79 1/2 × 1 3/4 inches

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Michail Pirgelis
Kapsel 1, 2010

Michail Pirgelis
Kapsel 1, 2010
Fiberglass, aluminum, titanium, lacquer
203 × 102 × 99 cm | 80 × 40 1/8 × 39 inches

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Michail Pirgelis
Trading News, 2015

Michail Pirgelis
Trading News, 2015
Aluminum, titanium, lacquer
184 × 145 × 4 cm | 72 3/8 × 57 × 1 5/8 inches

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Michail Pirgelis
Hawaiian Hills I–III, 2025

Michail Pirgelis
Hawaiian Hills I–III, 2025
Aluminum, titanium, lacquer, 3 parts
Each: 232.5 × 178 × 3.5 cm | 91 1/2 × 70 × 1 3/8 inches

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Michail Pirgelis
Deep End II, 2022

Michail Pirgelis
Deep End II, 2022
Aluminum, titanium, lacquer
96 × 83 × 5 cm | 37 7/8 × 32 3/4 × 2 inches

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Michail Pirgelis
Swing State, 2025

Michail Pirgelis
Swing State, 2025
Aluminum, titanium, lacquer, 2 parts
96 × 42 × 6 cm | 37 7/8 × 16 1/2 × 2 3/8 inches
98 × 63 × 5 cm | 38 5/8 × 24 7/8 × 2 inches

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Michail Pirgelis
Memory Games, 2017

Michail Pirgelis
Memory Games, 2017
Aluminum, titanium, lacquer
414 × 395 × 120 cm | 163 × 155 1/2 × 47 1/4 inches

ANTI – 6th Athens Biennale, Athens, installation view, October 26–December 9, 2018

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Details

Michail Pirgelis
Among the park, 2006
Aluminum, titanium, lacquer, fiberglass, belts
880 × 380 × 410 cm | 346 1/2 × 149 5/8 × 161 3/8 inches

Michail Pirgelis
Among the park, 2006

Michail Pirgelis
Among the park, installation view, Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, 2006

Michail Pirgelis
Among the park, installation view, Art Unlimited, Basel, 2015

Michail Pirgelis
Among the park, 2006 (detail)

Michail Pirgelis
The Modernist, 2019
Aluminum, fiberglass, titanium, lacquer, tape
215 × 277 × 35 cm | 84 5/8 × 109 × 13 7/8 inches

Michail Pirgelis
The Modernist, 2019

Michail Pirgelis
FUTURA, 2023
Aluminum, titanium, lacquer
95 × 63 × 24 cm | 37 3/8 × 24 7/8 × 9 1/2 inches

Michail Pirgelis
FUTURA, 2023

Michail Pirgelis
FUTURA, 2023 (detail)

Michail Pirgelis
Press Room, 2025

Michail Pirgelis
Press Room, 2025 (detail)

Michail Pirgelis
Italian Radio, 2019
Aluminum, titanium, lacquer
71 × 95 × 12.5 cm | 28 × 37 3/8 × 5 inches

Michail Pirgelis
Italian Radio, 2019

Michail Pirgelis
Young Hollywood, 2025

Michail Pirgelis
Young Hollywood, 2025 (detail)

Michail Pirgelis
The Houses III, 2019
Aluminum, titanium, lacquer
99 × 90 × 5 cm | 39 × 35 3/8 × 2 inches

Michail Pirgelis
The Houses III, 2019

Michail Pirgelis
Pawn House, 2019
Fiberglass, aluminum
182 × 203 × 30 cm | 71 5/8 × 80 × 11 7/8 inches

Michail Pirgelis
Pawn House, 2019

Michail Pirgelis
Pawn House, 2019 (detail)

Michail Pirgelis
A the Giant I, 2024

Michail Pirgelis
A the Giant I, 2023

Michail Pirgelis
A the Giant I, 2023 (detail)

Michail Pirgelis
Kapsel 1, 2010
Fiberglass, aluminum, titanium, lacquer
203 × 102 × 99 cm | 80 × 40 1/8 × 39 inches

Michail Pirgelis
Kapsel 1, 2010

Michail Pirgelis
Trading News, 2015
Aluminum, titanium, lacquer
184 × 145 × 4 cm | 72 3/8 × 57 × 1 5/8 inches

Michail Pirgelis
Trading News, 2015

Michail Pirgelis
Hawaiian Hills I–III, 2025
Aluminum, titanium, lacquer, 3 parts
Each: 232.5 × 178 × 3.5 cm | 91 1/2 × 70 × 1 3/8 inches

Michail Pirgelis
Hawaiian Hills I–III, 2025

Michail Pirgelis
Hawaiian Hills I–III, 2025 (detail)

Michail Pirgelis
Deep End II, 2022
Aluminum, titanium, lacquer
96 × 83 × 5 cm | 37 7/8 × 32 3/4 × 2 inches

Michail Pirgelis
Deep End II, 2022

Michail Pirgelis
Swing State, 2025
Aluminum, titanium, lacquer, 2 parts
96 × 42 × 6 cm | 37 7/8 × 16 1/2 × 2 3/8 inches
98 × 63 × 5 cm | 38 5/8 × 24 7/8 × 2 inches

Michail Pirgelis
Swing State, 2025

Michail Pirgelis
Swing State, 2025 (detail)

Michail Pirgelis
Memory Games, 2017
Aluminum, titanium, lacquer
414 × 395 × 120 cm | 163 × 155 1/2 × 47 1/4 inches

ANTI – 6th Athens Biennale, Athens, installation view, October 26–December 9, 2018

Michail Pirgelis
Memory Games, 2017

Michail Pirgelis
Memory Games, 2017
Installation view, Ausbruch aus der Fläche, Das Origami-Prinzip in der Kunst, Marta Herford, Germany, 2018

Michail Pirgelis
Memory Games, 2017

Michail Pirgelis
Memory Games, 2017
Installation view, Ausbruch aus der Fläche, Das Origami-Prinzip in der Kunst, Marta Herford, Germany, 2018

Michail Pirgelis
Memory Games, 2017

Michail Pirgelis
Memory Games, 2017
Installation view, Ausbruch aus der Fläche, Das Origami-Prinzip in der Kunst, Marta Herford, Germany, 2018

Michail Pirgelis
Memory Games, 2017

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Current and Upcoming

Michail Pirgelis
Kunstraum Dornbirn
July 3–November 8, 2026
Public Reception: July 2, from 7pm

In his artistic practice, Michail Pirgelis approaches the subject of sculpture on multiple levels. His works probe the boundaries of our understanding of objects and expand the experience of the sculptural in novel ways. For his first institutional solo exhibition in Austria, a site-specific installation featuring new works will be created in the historic assembly hall of Kunstraum Dornbirn.

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Exhibitions at Sprüth Magers

10 Years LA!
May 15–August 8, 2026
Los Angeles

Monika Sprüth and Philomene Magers are pleased to present 10 Years LA!, an exhibition celebrating the gallery’s decade-long presence in Los Angeles. Since opening its doors in February 2016, the gallery has featured solo and group exhibitions debuting new works by its iconic LA–based artists as well as major installations by artists from around the world, often bringing their work to the city for the very first time.

10 Years LA! features the work of, among others, Kenneth Anger, Richard Artschwager, John Baldessari, Bernd & Hilla Becher, Gretchen Bender, Cao Fei, George Condo, Hanne Darboven, Thomas Demand, Philip-Lorca diCorcia, Thea Djordjadze, Lucy Dodd, Peter Fischli David Weiss, Sylvie Fleury, Cyprien Gaillard, Gilbert & George, Andreas Gursky, Nancy Holt, Jenny Holzer, Gary Hume, Anne Imhof, Robert Irwin, Arthur Jafa, Craig Kauffman, Karen Kilimnik, Joseph Kosuth, Barbara Kruger, David Lamelas, Louise Lawler, Mire Lee, Anthony McCall, Robert Morris, Reinhard Mucha, Senga Nengudi, David Ostrowski, Otto Piene, Michail Pirgelis, Gala Porras-Kim, Jon Rafman, Bridget Riley, Pamela Rosenkranz, Sterling Ruby, Ed Ruscha, Analia Saban, David Salle, Thomas Scheibitz, Andreas Schulze, Stephen Shore, Martine Syms, Ryan Trecartin, Rosemarie Trockel, Nora Turato, Kaari Upson, Kara Walker, John Waters, Andro Wekua, and Andrea Zittel.

Michail Pirgelis
Seven Springs
May 3–July 26, 2025
Berlin

Seven Springs presents a new group of wall and floor sculptures by Michail Pirgelis that feature stripes and other flag-like elements. Together with wallpaper installations – a recent extension of the artist’s practice – they highlight Pirgelis’ relentless synthesis of painting, sculpture and environment. Drawn from disused remnants of the airline industry, the works of Pirgelis both reinvigorate and challenge the conventions of post-minimalism, the readymade and conceptual art.

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Mondi Possibili
Henni Alftan, John Baldessari, Cao Fei, Thomas Demand, Thea Djordjadze, Lucy Dodd, Robert Elfgen, Peter Fischli David Weiss, Sylvie Fleury, Jenny Holzer, Donald Judd, Karen Kilimnik, Barbara Kruger, Louise Lawler, David Ostrowski, Michail Pirgelis, Sterling Ruby, Thomas Scheibitz, Andreas Schulze, Hyun-Sook Song, Robert Therrien, Rosemarie Trockel, Kaari Upson, Andrea Zittel
August 31–September 14, 2023
Seoul

Mondi Possibili highlights the interplay between art and design and explores the many ways in which experimentation with material, technique and scale can reveal the hidden narratives, quiet drama and humor in the everyday items that furnish our lives as well as our imaginations. Connected through a paradigm of the possible, all artworks on show examine familiar objects – citing, celebrating, adapting or appropriating them – offering surprising, playful or unsettling approaches that open up a range of “possible worlds.” This will be the fourth edition of Sprüth Magers’ Mondi Possibili – first titled by Pasquale Leccese – showcasing significant themes in the selected artists’ works as well as the gallery’s longstanding heritage. Its three previous iterations were presented in 1989, 2006 and 2007 in Cologne, where the gallery’s history is firmly rooted, and art and design have intersected for many decades.

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Michail Pirgelis
Opaque Surfaces
July 2–August 20, 2022
Berlin

Michail Pirgelis' solo exhibition Opaque Surfaces presents new and previously unseen works that highlight his complex approach on sculpture. In his practice, the artist discusses different forms and expressions of sculpture by creating aesthetic surfaces with obvious painterly references, using material of decommissioned airplanes. Exploring the limits of our understanding of objects, Pirgelis' work radically expands and abstracts our experience of the sculptural.

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Michail Pirgelis, David Ostrowski
Nothing Happened
November 15–December 23, 2016
Los Angeles

Art knows no zero point. It has no concept of an outside place, no indefinite expression; it is impossible to represent 'nothing'. French cultural theorist Roland Barthes was the first to point this out. According to Barthes, every work carries with it the illusions of the culture in which it was made. The mesh of everyday myths is unavoidable; art history’s thicket of codes impenetrable. But for all its impossibility, the desire for this kind of zero point, the yearning to see without codes and connotations, remains essential. We all long for it. Astonishingly, the works of young Cologne artists Michail Pirgelis and David Ostrowski diligently strive toward this precise way of seeing.

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Michail Pirgelis
Adopted
February 7–March 8, 2014
Berlin

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Michail Pirgelis
Los Angeles
April 6–May 7, 2011
London

Since 2003, Pirgelis has made frequent visits to the ‘boneyards’ of Arizona and California, the now legendary resting places and holding facilities of scores of obsolete aircraft and flight-related paraphernalia. The planes either await re-deployment or are stripped piece-by-piece of their highly valuable parts which are incorporated back into other still viable vessels, with some craft remaining little more than carcasses. Pirgelis’ sculptures are often carefully hybridised amalgams of these incongruous aircraft remnants.

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Michail Pirgelis
Akropolis
January 30–April 1, 2010
Berlin

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Accrochage: Zeichnungen
George Condo, Axel Kasseböhmer, Frances Scholz, Andreas Schulze, Marie Luise Lebschik, Michail Pirgelis
September 12–October 14, 2006
Cologne

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Mondi Possibili
Thea Djordjadze, Peter Fischli David Weiss, Claus Föttinger, Thomas Grünfeld, Jenny Holzer, Stefan Kern, Joseph Kosuth, Louise Lawler, Michail Pirgelis, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Thomas Scheibitz, Andreas Schulze, Cindy Sherman, Rosemarie Trockel, Franz West
January 17–April 7, 2006
Cologne

As part of the PASSAGEN, the supporting programme of the International Furniture Fair in Cologne, at the beginning of the year Monika Sprüth and Philomene Magers present a new edition of the exhibition “Mondi Possibili”. The works on display deal with the subject of furniture from a variety of angles: as citation, as homage, as adaptation, or as copy. Others are usable objects that hardly differ from their reference objects in the domain of design or furniture.

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Press

“Rust” in der Galerie Sprüth Magers: Die Asche der Airlines
Tagesspiegel, article by Michaela Nolte, August 24, 2022

Nürnbergs versteckte Schönheit
Süddeutsche Zeitung, article by Olaf Przybilla, October 10, 2019

DC Open: 10 Highlights des Kunstwochenendes in Köln & Düsseldorf
Monopol, September 8, 2019

Neue Ausstellung im Marta: Kunst nach dem Origami-Prinzip
Neue Westfälische, article by Ralf Bittner, February 23, 2018

David Ostrowski and Michail Pirgelis: Nothing Happened, Sprüth Magers Los Angeles
Art Review, article by Jonathan T.D. Neil, January-February 2017

Michail Pirgelis and David Ostrowski’s visual affinities come into focus
Wallpaper, article by Elly Parsons, November 25, 2016

Interview: Michail Pirgelis
Artfridge, interview by Anna-Lena Werner, April 24, 2014

Artist of the Week 135: Michail Pirgelis
The Guardian, article by Skye Sherwin, April 22, 2011

Biography

Michail Pirgelis (*1976, Essen) lives and works in Cologne. In July 2026, his work will be featured in a solo exhibition at Kunstraum Dornbirn. Further solo exhibitions include Kunstraum München (2026), Fuhrwerkswaage and Odyssey, both Cologne (both 2022), Braunsfelder, Cologne (2019, with Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt), Leopold-Hoesch-Museum, Dueren (2016, with David Ostrowski), Autocenter Berlin (2015) and Artothek, Cologne (2011). Selected group exhibitions include a.o. Wilhelm Hallen, Berlin (2022), byvier, Cologne (2021), Ludwig Forum, Aachen and Gewölbe, Cologne (both 2020), DuMont Kunsthalle, Cologne, Kunsthalle Nuremberg; Haus N, Athens and Riot, Gent (all 2019), Sculpture in the City, London (2018–19), Athens Biennale; Kunstverein Reutlingen and Marta Herford (all 2018), Rubell Family Collection, Miami (2015), Istanbul Modern (2014), Bundeskunsthalle Bonn (2013), Museum Morsbroich, Leverkusen (2012), Thessaloniki Biennale (2011), Kunstmuseum Bonn (2010) and Stadtmuseum Düsseldorf (2005). Numerous awards and fellowships include the Berlin Fellowship from Akademie der Künste, Berlin (2013), Audi Art Award for ‘New Positions’ at Art Cologne (2010), Adolf Loos Prize from the Van den Valentyn Foundation, Cologne (its first recipient ever, in 2008) and Villa Romana Prize, Florence (2007).

Education

2009	Meisterschüler of Prof. Rosemarie Trockel
2003–09	Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, Dusseldorf (Prof. Rosemarie Trockel)

Awards, Grants and Fellowships

2015	Nominated for Hans-Purrmann Preis, Speyer
2013	Nominated for Deste Prize 2013, Athens
	Nominated for 5x5 Castellò
	Fellowship, Akademie der Künste, Berlin
2010	Art Cologne Audi Art Award for New Positions, Cologne
	Schloss Ringenberg-Stipendium, Hamminkeln
2008	Adolf Loos-Preis, Cologne
2007	Villa Romana-Preis, Florence