The Genesis Facade Commission: Liu Wei

Chinese contemporary artist Liu Wei's monumental facade commission for the Met.

Why go

Liu Wei is a pioneering figure in Chinese conceptual art whose work challenges art-historical conventions through virtuosic command of scale and site. This is his first major presentation in the United States, and the sculptures will engage directly with The Met's iconic Fifth Avenue facade and its classical niches.

What to expect

Four large-scale composite sculptures made from a variety of materials will occupy the niches of The Met's Fifth Avenue exterior, playing with perspective and scale to provoke complex feelings and reactions.

Things to know

• Born 1972 in Beijing; studied oil painting at China Academy of Art, Hangzhou (BFA 1996)
• Featured in the inaugural China Pavilion at the 51st Venice Biennale (2005) and the 58th Venice Biennale (2019)
• Exhibited in major group shows including Shanghai Biennial (2004, 2010), Lyon Biennale (2007, 2015), Sharjah Biennial (2013), and LACMA's Th
• Known for reconfiguring fragments from urban environments, historical sources, and bodily forms into sculptural installations that evoke awe
• Works across multiple media including photography, painting, video, sculpture, and installation since the late 1990s
• This is the seventh Genesis Facade Commission at The Met, following artists including Wangechi Mutu, Hew Locke, Carol Bove, Nairy Baghramian