David Altmejd

David Altmejd is sculptor for Montreal. He's been in some of the biggest art shows around, and also had a show at ACAD in 2007. Seeing his work in real life was like discovering your favorite band as they opened for someone else. I was in awe. Some of my profs were criticizing that he was a young artist whose work was still "immature", but whatever, this shit is awesome. The way he contrasts materials and subjects makes for some morbidly beautiful stuff. I also like his work because he isn't really trying to say something in particular about feminism or socio-economics or whatever, he's just interested in creating contrasts and a sense of "The Uncanny" (artsy definition ahead)

The Uncanny (Ger. Das Unheimliche -- literally, "un-home-ly", but idiomatically, "scary", "creepy") is a Freudian concept of an instance where something can be familiar, yet foreign at the same time, resulting in a feeling of it being uncomfortably strange.[1] (See Uncanny valley)

Because the uncanny is familiar, yet strange, it often creates cognitive dissonance within the experiencing subject due to the paradoxical nature of being attracted to, yet repulsed by an object at the same time. This cognitive dissonance often leads to an outright rejection of the object, as one would rather reject than rationalize.