Artist: David Altmejd
Exhibition title: Magic Loop
Venue: Modern Art, London, UK
Date: January 19 – February 24, 2018
Photography: all images copyright and courtesy of the artist and Modern Art, London
Modern Art is pleased to announce a solo exhibition of new works by David Altmejd. This is the artist’s fifth solo exhibition with Modern Art.
Over the course of the past fifteen years, David Altmejd has been working through questions about the relationship between the human body and larger energy systems of physics, electricity and biology. The forms his works take tend towards the fantastical; he builds up complex characters who occupy unfamiliar mythological narratives, all the while alluding to the inevitable destruction and decay of all biological matter.
For this exhibition at Modern Art, Altmejd is presenting a dozen haut-reliefs in which casts of hands seem to be moving plaster around to form figures. These figures are then fragmented and seem to return to a state of abstract materiality. In these dynamic pieces, the acts of formation and disintegration become part of the same material loop.
David Altmejd was born in 1974 in Montreal, and he lives and works in New York. He holds MA Fine Art from Columbia University, New York, NY, USA (2001), and BA Fine Art Université du Québec à Montréal, Montreal, Canada (1998). In 2007 Altmejd represented Canada at the Venice Biennale. His work has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Royal Museums of Fine Arts Belgium, Brussels, Belgium (2016); Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark (2015); MUDAM, Luxembourg (2015); Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Montréal, Canada (2015); Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France (2014); MOCA Cleveland, Cleveland, OH, USA (2012); Brant Foundation Study Center, Greenwich CT, USA (2011); Le Magasin, Centre National d’Art Contemporain de Grenoble, Grenoble, France (2009); Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, CO, USA (2007). Altmejd’s work has been included in exhibitions such as The Grace of a Gesture: Fifty Years of Gifts, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, Montréal, Canada (2014); Builders, Canadian Biennial 2012, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, ON, Canada (2012); Mondes inventés, Mondes habités, MUDAM Luxembourg, Luxembourg (2011); Skin Fruit, New Museum, New York, NY, USA (2010); Liverpool Biennial, Tate Liverpool, Liverpool (2008); Quebec Triennial, Musee D’Art Contemporain de Montreal, Montreal, Canada (2008); Whitney Biennial 2004, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, USA (2004); and the 8th Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul, Turkey (2004).
David Altmejd, Magic Loop, 2018, exhibition view, Modern Art, London
David Altmejd, Magic Loop, 2018, exhibition view, Modern Art, London
David Altmejd, Magic Loop, 2017, aqua resin, epoxy resin, fiberglass, steel, aluminum, graphite, MSA varnish, 198.2 x 246.7 x 25.4cm, 97 1/8 x 78 x 10 ins
David Altmejd, Magic Loop, detail, 2017, aqua resin, epoxy resin, fiberglass, steel, aluminum, graphite, MSA varnish, 198.2 x 246.7 x 25.4cm, 97 1/8 x 78 x 10 ins
David Altmejd, Magic Loop, 2018, exhibition view, Modern Art, London
David Altmejd, Nighttime Transfiguration, 2017, aqua resin, fiberglass, polyethylene foam rod, resin, steel, graphite, MSA varnish, 114.6 x 94.1 x 17.8cm, 45 1/8 x 37 1/16 x 7 ins
David Altmejd, Magic Loop, 2018, exhibition view, Modern Art, London
David Altmejd, Magic Loop, 2018, exhibition view, Modern Art, London
David Altmejd, Magic Loop, 2018, exhibition view, Modern Art, London
David Altmejd, I.T. Guy, 2017, aqua resin, epoxy resin, fiberglass, steel, aluminum, graphite, MSA varnish, 181.2 x 155.7 x 25 cm, 71 3/8 x 61 1/4 x 9 7/8
David Altmejd, I.T. Guy, detail, 2017, aqua resin, epoxy resin, fiberglass, steel, aluminum, graphite, MSA varnish, 181.2 x 155.7 x 25 cm, 71 3/8 x 61 1/4 x 9 7/8
David Altmejd, Magic Loop, 2018, exhibition view, Modern Art, London
David Altmejd, Magic Loop, 2018, exhibition view, Modern Art, London
David Altmejd, Le saut, 2017, aqua resin, epoxy resin, fiberglass, steel, aluminum, graphite, MSA varnish, 216 x 315 x 20 cm, 85 1/8 x 124 1/8 x 7 7/8 ins
David Altmejd, Le saut, detail, 2017, aqua resin, epoxy resin, fiberglass, steel, aluminum, graphite, MSA varnish, 216 x 315 x 20 cm, 85 1/8 x 124 1/8 x 7 7/8 ins