Genesis Celebrates the Opening of the Genesis Facade Commission: Liu Wei, Speculation at the Metropo

September 24, 2026 by Genesis
• The third commission presented through Genesis’ multi-year partnership with The Metropolitan Museum of Art will be on view through June 8, 2027
• Artist Liu Wei’s Speculation reflects on cycles of rupture and suture through architectural fragments and bodily forms rendered in diverse materials
• Liu Wei’s newly commissioned works illuminate the challenges embedded in contemporary realities while deepening our understanding of human experience in an era of profound transformation

Genesis today shared the opening of The Genesis Facade Commission: Liu Wei, Speculation at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Marking the third commission under the multi-year partnership between Genesis and The Met, the exhibition will be on view at the Museum’s Fifth Avenue facade from Sept. 17, 2026 through June 8, 2027.

Established in 2024, The Genesis Facade Commission is an annual exhibition that invites artists to create new sculptural works for The Met’s Fifth Avenue facade, engaging with the Museum’s Beaux-Arts architecture and encyclopedic collection. Following presentations by acclaimed contemporary artists Lee Bul and Jeffrey Gibson, this year’s commission features four large-scale works by Beijing-based artist Liu Wei.

Liu has presented solo exhibitions in Beijing, Shanghai, Seoul, and Cleveland in recent decades. The Genesis Facade Commission marks his first major museum exhibition in the United States.

Liu has explored the realities of the contemporary era since the late 1990s through a range of media, including photography, painting, video, sculpture, and installation. As one of the pioneering artists from China who sought to define conceptual art on their own terms amid rapid societal transformation, Liu has continuously built his own artistic practice by challenging and reinterpreting the historic expressions of abstraction, figuration, and the readymade.

Known for his engagement with sites and scale, Liu reconfigures fragments of the urban environment, historical sources, and bodily forms into grandiose sculptural installations and monumental forms while capturing and criticizing recurring conflicts and contradictions to challenge conventional boundaries.

For The Genesis Facade Commission, Liu Wei presents four sculptures of varying scales, each titled after a fundamental constant in physics: Speculation / Λ; Speculation / G; Speculation / c and Speculation / h. Composed of architectural fragments and bodily forms in diverse materials — including fiberglass composite, steel, aluminum alloy, polyurethane paint, and bovine rawhide — the works take form within the facade’s niches as ‘a pile of still life objects brusquely sutured together.’

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The human hand emerges as a recurring motif and defining form throughout the commission, underscoring its enduring artistic, cultural, and symbolic resonance across time and place. It serves as a bridge between the tangible and the speculative, embodying Liu’s broader exploration of transformation, perception, and imagination.
The exhibition, titled Speculation, explores fragmentation, transformation, and renewal, reflecting on cycles of rupture and suture that shape individuals, cities, and societies over time. Drawing on the artist’s experience of the sweeping transformations of a rapidly modernizing China, the works examine the tensions, uncertainties, and contradictions that accompany profound change. In conversation with The Met’s Beaux-Arts architecture, the artworks reimagine the Fifth Avenue facade as a site for dialogue, reflection, and discovery.

‘Through his distinctive artistic language, Liu Wei reconfigures familiar forms to illuminate the challenges embedded in contemporary realities,’ said DooEun Choi, Art Director of Hyundai Motor. ‘We hope this exhibition invites audiences to reflect on human experience in an era of profound transformation and to reconsider how we navigate the complexities of the present.’

‘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 Marina Kellen French Director and Chief Executive Officer. ‘This commission also reflects the spirit of The Met’s Tang Wing for Modern and Contemporary Art, opening in 2030, where global perspectives and boundary-pushing artistic practices like Liu Wei’s will be at the heart of how we present art of our time. We are honored to work with Liu Wei to expand the possibilities of the iconic Fifth Avenue facade with his first major project at an American institution.’

To celebrate the opening, an artist talk titled An Evening with Liu Wei, will be held on Sept. 22, offering a closer look at the artist’s creative journey and the conceptual development of the commission.

Through Genesis Art Initiatives, Genesis continues to deepen its partnerships with leading cultural institutions and visionary artists, fostering meaningful cultural dialogue globally. Current initiatives include The Genesis Facade Commission at The Met, The Genesis Talks in partnership with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), and the newly opened Do Ho Suh exhibition at the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea (MMCA), on view through Feb. 9, 2027.