Genesis covers New York Met's Fifth Avenue facade with new works by Liu Wei

The Fifth Avenue facade of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is now covered with large-scale sculptures by Chinese contemporary artist Liu Wei, marking the third installment of a contemporary art project Genesis launched with the museum in 2024.

Genesis announced Friday that "The Genesis Facade Commission: Liu Wei, Speculation" opened Thursday (local time) and will remain on view through June 8 next year.

The Genesis Facade Commission is an annual contemporary art project that selects one artist each year to present a large-scale installation on the Fifth Avenue facade of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It launched in 2024 with Korean artist Lee Bul, followed last year by American artist Jeffrey Gibson.

This year's featured artist is Beijing-based Liu Wei, who since the late 1990s has worked across photography, painting, video, sculpture and installation to capture the rapidly changing landscape of Chinese society and its cities. He is recognized for reinterpreting conceptual art — which prizes ideas, process and context over the finished form — in his own distinctive way.

The exhibition presents four large-scale sculptures centered on the themes of fragmentation, transformation and regeneration, exploring the process by which things are dismantled and then remade.

The four works are titled "Speculation / Λ," "Speculation / G," "Speculation / c" and "Speculation / h" — each incorporating a fundamental physical constant used in physics.

Viewed up close, the sculptures appear to blend fragments of crumbled architecture with parts of the human body. The materials range from composite fiberglass, iron and aluminum alloy to bronze, leather and rope. Rather than forming a single, complete shape, each work is composed of multiple objects connected in deliberately incomplete ways.

The motif of hands recurs throughout all four works — a recurring element in Liu Wei's practice. Rendered as a familiar part of the human body yet distorted into forms that could not exist in the real world, the hands serve as a device linking reality and imagination.

The exhibition title "Speculation" carries meanings of conjecture and contemplation. Through it, the artist expresses the uncertainty individuals face in a rapidly changing society, along with the tension and conflict that arise in the process.

A Genesis official said the exhibition "reframes familiar forms through a distinctive artistic language to illuminate multiple layers of contemporary reality," expressing hope that it would offer audiences insight into the human experience in an era of rapid change.

Max Hollein, director and CEO of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, said Liu Wei's works would demonstrate "not only curiosity and innovation but also the artist's distinctive humor," adding that he was honored to expand the possibilities of the museum's facade through The Genesis Facade Commission.

On Tuesday, the museum will host "An Evening with Liu Wei," in which the artist will discuss his creative process and artistic practice in person.

Beyond New York, Genesis continues its arts patronage in Los Angeles, where it has formed a long-term partnership with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to sponsor "The Genesis Talks." In South Korea, the automaker is also supporting the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art's exhibition on Suh Do-ho, which runs through Feb. 9 next year.