This spring, as temperatures and hopes begin to rise, our featured sculpture exhibitions also reach upward. Meijer Gardens’ Sculpture Galleries will be transformed with installations by two individual artists—Jennifer Angus and Paul Villinski—who both explore the lofty realms of flight. Together their works transport visitors to new heights of sensory experience and imagination.

Paul Villinski: Flight Patterns
The art of Paul Villinski explores the dynamic aerial realm and various notions of “flight”—literal and metaphorical. A licensed pilot, Villinski gives form to assorted airborne bodies, including butterflies, birds, airplanes and aspiring humans. To create his sculptural work, Villinski enlists a range of found materials: aluminum cans become flocks of patterned butterflies; used knives transform into feathered wings; old vinyl LPs morph into songbirds. These discarded objects are reborn in works that honor their past lives while compounding their identity to address serious subjects such as addiction and environmentalism. A highlight of the exhibition is a scaled-down World War II B25 bomber airplane suspended from the ceiling. In Villinski’s hands, this vessel of destruction is transformed into a vehicle of hope: Instead of bombs it drops food and brings attention to the widespread condition of food scarcity.