The Metropolitan Museum of ArtThe Metropolitan Museum of Art

The Genesis Facade Commission: Liu Wei, Speculation presents four new monumental sculptures by artist Liu Wei (b. 1972), marking the artist’s first major project in the United States.

Since the late 1990s, Liu Wei has examined the realities of contemporary life through sculpture, installation, painting, video, and photography. Drawing on his experience of living through China’s rapid economic growth, urbanization, and social transformation, he brings together materials, historical references, and everyday objects to reflect on the conflicts and contradictions of modern society. His work continually challenges and reinterprets established artistic categories such as abstraction, figuration, and the readymade.

For The Genesis Facade Commission: Liu Wei, Speculation, the artist centers on the recurring motif of the human hand, assembling diverse materials and imagery into four sculptures. Addressing themes of fragmentation, transformation, and renewal, the works invite viewers to consider the cycles of rupture and suture that have shaped individuals, cities, and societies across time.

The Genesis Facade Commission : Jeffrey Gibson, The Animal That Therefore I Am presents four large-scale sculptures by artist Jeffrey Gibson (b.1972).

Gibson’s long-established visual language fuses his cultural worldview and imagery with abstraction, text, and color, exploring themes of metamorphic relationship and collective identity.

The four bronze sculptures, each approximately three meters tall, mark Gibson’s first major use of bronze at a monumental scale. They are covered with patinated abstract patterns that evoke beadwork and textiles, and take the form of a regional animals: a deer, a coyote, a squirrel, and a hawk. By selecting species native to the New York area, Gibson reflects on how these creatures have been forced to adapt to human environments, inviting us to consider what they endure and what they might teach us.

The Genesis Facade Commission: Lee Bul, Long Tail Halo features four new site-specific works by artist Lee Bul (b. 1964). Known for her sophisticated use of both highly industrial and labor-intensive materials, Lee incorporates artisanal practices as well as technological advancements into her work, addressing the aspirations and disillusions that come with progress.

The artworks presented in this exhibition symbolize, both independently and in dialogue, the abiding human desire for progress and perfection while hinting at the failures and repercussions inherent to these pursuits. Together they reflect the endless revisions and transformations in the long narratives of history.