Michail Pirgelis20

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.