David Altmejd

Oakville Galleries presents David Altmejd's first solo exhibition in Canada outside of Montréal. The Exhibition is organized and circulated by curator Louise Déry from the Galerie de l'Université du Qébec, Montréal. Sculptor David Altmejd's complex labyrintine work, populated by goulish entities drawn from fairly tales, Greek mythology and Hollywood B-movies, juxtopposes a Modernist architectural model with a teeming world of sensory excess. Death and desires, the self and the other, decay and transformation - all are explicit th the forms and contexs of Altmejd's grotesqueries. Altmejd's use of materials is opulent, complex and evocatively incongruous. The artist's interest in the metamorphosis of the body is articulated in the recurring motif of the werewolf - its decaying flesh is bedecked with crystals and jewellery, while its habitats are sprawling platforms, boxlike rooms, mirrored surfaces and Plexiglass towers, connected at different levels by flights of steps, and lit from many sources.

This exhibition of Altmejd's work. which investigates work produced from the late 1990s to today, differs from the usual traveling exhibition in that Altmejd talor-makes the exhibition in order to relate to the unique site of Oakville Galleries at Gairloch Gardens. altmejd responds to the domestic nature of this former estate: to its history, its use as shelter, issues of materialism and issues of public and private. The resulting exhibition "acts-out" the social relations inherent in such a location to promt further memory, association and imagination.

David Altmejd, born in Montréal, lives and works in Montréal, Brooklyn and London. He has degrees in visual art from UQAM (BA, 1998) and Columbia University (MFA, 2001). His work has been shown in Québec, the United States and in Europe. Altmejd has notably participated in the Istanbul (2003) and Whitney (2004) Biennials, and will represent Canada at the 2007 Venice Biennale in an exhibition curated by Louise Déry and produced by the Galerie de l'Université du Qébec, Montréal. In a few years, David Altmejd has very quickly achieved an enviable place on the North American art scene, and the exemplary individuality of his work makes him one of the most significant artists of his generation. This is Altmejd's first major exhibition touring in Canada - it is his first major solo exhibition in Canada outside of Montréal.

David Altmejd is produced by the Galerie de l'Université du Qébec, Montréal with the support of the Canada Council for the Arts and Heritage Canada.

David Altmejd
Metamorphosis