The Genesis Facade Commission: Liu Wei, Speculation

Beijing-based artist Liu Wei (born 1972) inspires visitors to ponder cycles of rupture and mending for The Genesis Facade Commission in 2026. Known for monumental sculptural installations that evoke awe and a sense of urgency, Liu will create four large-scale sculptures for The Met’s Fifth Avenue exterior. Using a variety of materials and remixing familiar motifs—fragments from the urban environment, historical sources, and bodily forms—Liu Wei invites contemplation, surprise, and revelation to pierce through our perceptions of reality with a blend of rawness and refinement. In The Met’s four sculptures, the recurring motif of the human hand—so rich in art historical and cultural associations—emerges as a point of connection between the recognizable and the fantastical.

A key figure of a generation of artists from China who sought to define “conceptual art” on their own terms, Liu Wei has addressed realities of our time through a wide range of media, from photography and painting, to video, sculpture, and installation, since the late 1990s. He has developed a body of work that challenges art historical cliches across forms and styles and is known for his impressive command of sites and scale. Speculation is shaped by the artist’s experience living in the age of globalization, especially in a rapidly modernizing China during a period of dramatic economic, political, and social transformation.

Liu’s project for The Genesis Facade Commission is his first major presentation in the United States and the seventh in The Met’s annual commission series.