David Altmejd

(born in Montreal 1974; lives and works in Los Angeles)
Untitled 2 (Bronze Bodybuilders), 2015, signed, numbered 1/3 and with foundry mark "Art Casting Belgium", bronze with patina, 203.2 x 57.8 x 57.8
This work is no. 1 from an edition of 3 examples + 2 AP.

Provenance:
Xavier Hufkens Gallery, Brussels
European Corporate Collection (acquired from the above)

David Altmejd’s practice explores processes of transformation, fragmentation, and regeneration, often combining organic and synthetic materials into complex, evolving sculptural forms.

We are pleased to present at auction Untitled 2 (Bronze Bodybuilders), 2015, the first sculpture in bronze by David Altmejd. The work stages a scene of formation: the body of a woman emerges as if shaped from within, molded by visible hands whose gestures remain inscribed in the surface. Grooves and soft striations traverse the bronze, rendering the act of creation palpably present.

With prolonged observation, the work reveils a more ambiguous interpretation, leaving the viewer unable to determine whether the act unfolding is one of making or unmaking. Sprouting from the body itself, they clutch and mould the very substance of their own flesh, suggesting a process that is at once generative and disintegrative. The sculpture seems to continue living and transforming before the viewer.

David Altmejd’s work is held in the permanent collections of major institutions including the Art Gallery of Ontario; The Solomon R.
Guggenheim Museum; The Musée d’art moderne de la Ville de Paris; The Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles; The Palm Springs Art Museum, and The Whitney Museum of American Art.

David Altmejd is represented by White Cube, Xavier Hufkens, and David Kordansky Gallery.

„When I finish a sculpture, I want it to be something that has emerged outside of my control – something that has developed its own intelligence, its own
sexuality, its own life, something capable of making its own choices, of building itself.
If I succeed in that, then I can step back, look at it, take some distance, and simply let myself learn from it, let myself be fascinated by it.”
David Altmejd

Photos: © David Altmejd Studio