When I first came across David Altmejd’s work in the mid-oughts, it seemed to emerge from, or fit into, a certain romantic zeitgeist for the fantastical, the fragile, the transformative, and the sublime. On a superficial level it cottoned onto hipster primitive fashions, and the artist’s predilection for werewolves corresponded to a local cultural moment where Montreal produced more than one successful band featuring “wolf” in its name. However, on a deeper level the work was unsettling as much for its beauty – seen in his use of fur, mirror, crystals, and compositional structures reminiscent of high-end window displays – as for the sex and death subject matter. 
David Altmejd, Untitled 6 (The Watchers), 2014, steel, plaster, burlap, polystyrene, expandable foam
Almost ten years later, the exhibition Flux at the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal brings together past and present work. Though not designed chronologically, the exhibition begins with an early work: a small portrait bust of Altmejd’s sister. Locks of hair hang tenderly around a dark crystallized chasm where her face should be. Around the corner is a room full of small head sculptures, similar to that of the sister, but varying in success. Some verge on cartoonish and kind of… gaudy. Herein lies my problem with Altmejd’s practice: his sculptures can be beautifully crafted with mysterious and magical results, but they can also look clumsily made and garish (and not in a good way).
Altmejd rose to prominence representing Canada at the 2007 Venice Biennale, right before the 2008 financial crisis, and after that moment I’ve always viewed his work differently. In the subsequent societal context his work lost some of its magic, often seeming blingy and facilely appealing to the 1%. At the MACM opening, the amount of wealthy-looking people taking selfies of their mirrored reflections only confirmed my wariness. In recent years Altmejd has branched out, intermittingly working in plaster rather than mirror and crystal. However, these works look like a poor man’s Antony Gormley. That being said, when he’s good, he’s really good. So, like every other time I have seen an Altmejd exhibition, I left Flux feeling completely confused – unsure how to negotiate between my cynicism and my, perhaps nostalgic, appreciation.
Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal: http://flux.macm.org/en/
David Altmejd: Flux continues until September 13.
Susannah Wesley is an artist and curator living in Montreal. She has been a member of the collaborative duo Leisure since 2004 and from 1997-2000 was part of the notorious British art collective the Leeds13. Formerly Director at Battat Contemporary in Montreal, she holds an MFA from the Glasgow School of Art and an MA in Art History from Concordia University. She is Akimblog's Montreal correspondent and can be followed @susannahwesley1 on Twitter.
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David Altmejd at the Musee d'art contemporain de Montreal
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