Drawn from disused remnants of the airline industry, the sculptures of Michail Pirgelis both reinvigorate and challenge the conventions of post-minimalism, the readymade and conceptual art.

Most of the works exhibited here can be installed in various orientations depending on the spatial context, offering multiple perspectives, and emphasizing their sculptural quality. Pirgelis pushes the boundary of sculpture by bringing in multilayered references to painting, art historical and sculptural ideas.

The silver-toned panels of Pirgelis’ series A the Giant (2024) carry fragments of lettering such as “A” or “m”. Their rows of rivets and industrial metallic surfaces recall minimalist sculpture in the tradition of Donald Judd. As does Southwest High (2025), where a row of oval airplane windows is tilted vertically, reminiscent of one of Judd’s known “Stack” sculptures.

At the same time, however, the minimalist approach is questioned. The surfaces of Pirgelis’ works are far from minimalism’s pristine finish—upon closer inspection, dents and scuffs make clear the weather and time that they have endured, imbuing them with a painterly, gestural character and a unique aura of history.

Another key element to Pirgelis’ sculptural transformation of space in Seven Springs is his use of wallpapers. Eagle Mountains (2025) appears in strategic sections of the gallery, carving it into distinct areas, generating optical effects, and thereby defining the viewer’s physical and visual experience within the exhibition. The replicating motif in Eagle Mountains, with its criss-crossing eagle wings, reproduces a vintage American Airlines logo, linking Pirgelis’ work to pop art and its use of graphical signs and logos.

The work Last Resort (2024) offers a succinct crystallization of all these core ideas: a minimalist white monochrome—save for its empty rivet holes, red-striped edge, and numerous marks of use—bends upward from the wall at the work’s bottom-left side like a curling piece of paper. As it reaches away from the wall, occupying at once the wall-space of “painting” and the room-space of “sculpture.”