David Altmejd


David Altmejd is a Canadian sculptor who lives and works in New York City. Altmejd creates highly detailed sculptures that often blur the distinction between interior and exterior, surface and structure, figurative representation and abstraction. His work has appeared in major exhibitions at the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium, Brussels, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Mudam Luxembourg, Musée d’art moderne Grand- Duc Jean, Luxembourg, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, MOCA Cleveland, Cleveland, the Brant Foundation Art Study Center, the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, the New Museum and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

Life and work

Born in Montreal, Quebec, Altmejd earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Université du Québec à Montréal. Altmejd completed his Masters of Fine Arts at Columbia University in 2001.
Since graduating with his MFA, he has taken part in many group shows, such as at Artists Space and Deitch Projects. In 2003, he was curated by Dan Cameron into the 8th International Istanbul Biennial. In 2004, he was included in the Whitney Biennial of American Art.
In 2007, he represented Canada at the Venice Biennale; his installation "The Index" was subsequently purchased by the Art Gallery of Ontario. The Greek collector Dakis Joannou purchased the other half of the installation.
Altmejd's sculptures mix seemingly random objects such as decapitated werewolf heads with graffiti-style Stars of David, towers made of mirrors, plastic flowers and costume jewelry, to create sculptural systems loaded with what he calls "symbolic potential" and open ended narratives. Werewolf heads have appeared so frequently in his work that in the contemporary art world, they are widely recognized as being closely affiliated with this artist. They featured prominently in his solo show at the Brant Foundation in 2012.
Kara L. Rooney writes of "The Vessel", the central piece in his March 2011 showing at Andrea Rosen Gallery:
In 2016 Altmejd designed the art for Yeasayer's album Amen & Goodbye which the band described as "Sgt Pepper meets Hieronymous Bosch meets Dali meets PeeWee's Playhouse."
He is represented by White Cube and Xavier Hufkens.

Documentary