The Metropolitan Museum of Art announced that Liu Wei has been commissioned to create four sculptures for the museum’s iconic Fifth Avenue facade in New York, marking the artist’s first major project in the United States.
Born in 1972 in Beijing, Liu Wei is known for his monumental and evocative sculptural installations. At The Met, he will bring his observations of the present to the urban and historical contexts of the museum. The Genesis Facade Commission: Liu Wei will be on view from September 17, 2026, through June 8, 2027.
“Liu Wei’s sculptures for The Genesis Facade Commission are sure to reflect the curiosity, innovation—and even humor—he is known for,” said Max Hollein, The Met’s Director and Chief Executive Officer.
“For this commission, Liu Wei will use his dynamic language of reconfiguration and assemblage to address conflicts and contradictions in society,” said Lesley Ma, Curator in the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art at The Met and curator of the project. “For me, his work always compellingly pierces through perceptions of reality with a blend of rawness and refinement.”
Liu Wei’s new works will play with perspective and scale and address cycles of rupture, resistance, mending, and creating in history. Instead of a totalizing narrative, Liu will present composite sculptures made with a variety of materials that provoke complex feelings and reactions amid uncertainties in contemporary life.
