David Altmejd at AGO

Around this time last year, I took a day trip with some gallery colleagues to Toronto for a whirlwind tour of the galleries and museums there. Now, I’m longing to go back, and the top attraction on my list is the Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO), which is actually an art museum with artworks as old as 100 A.D. I love visiting museums because there is an exclusive nature to historical art. You will almost never see an artist’s full collection at a single museum, so you have to travel to see the works of a favorite artist. Any art history nerd will agree that there is an amazing difference between seeing an image of an artwork and seeing it in person (which is probably why I tear up almost every time I am faced with the enormous scale of a tapestry.)

The AGO’s European collection holds master artists including Anthony van Dyck, Auguste Rodin, Peter Paul Rubens, Edgar Degas, and Claude Monet. Since I was on a research trip for a contemporary gallery, my rushed visit did not include much of the historical collections. But, what I did see stopped me dead in my tracks.

A walk up the newly added Baroque staircase leads you to the centre for contemporary art – and that’s where I first saw the work of David Altmejd, Canadian-born sculptor and installation artist. I was immediately captured by his installation, The Index, and I spent the majority of my time allotment exploring the mirrored caverns and gawking at the crystallized taxidermy of his imagination. Of course, pictures will never do justice to the way this installation made my heart skip a beat and my breath catch in my throat. 

According to my blurry cellphone picture, the gallery label reads:

Human, animal and plant forms collide and intersect in this complex installation. Stuffed birds, squirrels, and werewolves in mirrored crates are [unreadable] alongside quartz, glitter, mushrooms, pine needles, moss, flowering plants and bird-like figures in suits. The title of the work, The Index, suggests collecting and diversity, though Altmejd deviates from the neat and orderly structure we usually associate with indexes. Here he considers the relationship among all living things, exploring issues such as identity, sexuality, community, and the cloning and mutation of species. Architecture and mirrors draw us into the maze-like work, inviting us to create our own narrative and implicating us in the biodiverse hybrid world and the natural cycle of life and death.

Altmejd has quickly made a name for himself in the contemporary art world. He received a BFA from the Université du Québec à Montréal in 1998 and an MFA from Columbia University in 2001. The Index was a pivotal work for Altmejd. The installation was first exhibited in 2007 at the Venice Biennale – making him the youngest artist to represent Canada in this prestigious exhibit. The work was then promptly purchased by AGO. There are already published monographs on this young artist – including a book completely dedicated to The Index. You can also read more about David Altmejd here, here, and here.

If I hope to see The Index again soon, I’ll have to return to AGO before October, which I fully intend to do. For that visit I will be able to go at my own pace and promise to report back to you on the historical art collections of this museum.