ARTISTS
David Altmejd
Untitled
2012
Wood, burlap, plaster and paint
36 x 48 x 7-1/2 inches (91.44 x 121.92 x 19.05 cm)
Provenance
Andrea Rosen Gallery
Private Collection, New York
About the Artwork
Executed in 2012, Untitled belongs to a series of three-dimensional works in which Canadian artist David Altmejd, known for his evocative sculptures and installations, challenges the tradition of the standing figure in the history of art. By metaphorically representing the hands of an absent body, the artist evokes a human figure harmonically scraping the surface of the painting to leave an expressive, quasi-symmetrical trace. By means of this personal technique, Altmejd creates the illusion of a self-generating work of art that has the power to create itself. Reflecting on his practice, the artist has pointed out: “It’s important for me that an object is able to generate energy. The fact that contrast leads to tension, which leads to the production of energy, makes the object function more like a living being.”
About the Artist
New York-based artist David Altmejd (b. 1974, Montreal, Canada) graduated from l’Université de Québec in Montréal with his BFA in 1998 and from Columbia University with his MFA in 2001. He represented Canada at the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007, and won the Sobey Art Award in 2009. His pieces are held in the collections of the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal; National Gallery of Canada; Art Gallery of Ontario; Montreal Museum of Fine Arts; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; MOCA – Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles at Art Gallery of Ontario and Dallas Museum of Art.
Altmejd’s work has been exhibited in numerous solo and group shows, including: Giants, Royal Museums of Fine Arts Belgium, Brussels; The Flux and the Puddle, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark, 2016; Flux, Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montréal, Québec, 2015; Flux, Mudam Luxembourg; Musée d’Art Moderne Grand- Duc Jean, Luxembourg; Flux, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, 2014 and David Altmejd: The Orbit, MOCA Cleveland, Cleveland, USA, 2012.
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