David Altmejd's seductive yet repulsive sculptures combine magic, science fiction and gothic romanticism

Some of Altmejd’s best-known works are his vast, labyrinthine vitrines built of Plexiglas, often with mirrored elements. They play on the aesthetics of design and display as well as minimalism but are not simply a means to contain or protect the elements within. Rather, the entire structure is an organism or a machine, making visible the processes of growth and decay that take place inside it.

In his recent life-sized sculpted heads, Altmejd combines skilful realism with crude expressionism, using gobbets of raw matter or hanks of fur. One head might sprout another, inverted, sharing a pair of eyes. Some faces are scooped out entirely, with gaping wounds revealing interiors of dazzling crystal or hollowed-out fruit, collapsing the categories of animal, vegetable and mineral.

His monochrome relief panels are austere in comparison, focusing the viewer’s attention on plaster-like material and the actions wrought on it – where it has fallen in wet splats, or hands have gouged and clawed its chalky surface. Hands in cast form also appear and multiply, creating the illusion that the works create themselves. Monumental series’ of figures, such as the ‘Bodybuilders’ and the ‘Watchers’, are similarly engaged in their own making or unmaking, sprouting hands that clutch and mould the very substance of their bodies.

Coinciding with Art Basel Hong Kong (29 – 31 March 2019), David Altmejd’s first White Cube exhibition will include new sculptures alongside other examples of his work. The show runs from 26 March until 18 May 2019. Discover more at www.davidaltmejd.com.