The Met Names Liu Wei as The Genesis Facade Commission Artist for 2026
This fall, The Metropolitan Museum of Art will unveil a new suite of sculptures by Liu Wei in the niches of its Fifth Avenue facade, marking the artist’s first major project in the United States and The Met’s first presentation of a commissioned work by an artist from China since 2006.
Since the late 1990s, Liu Wei (BFA, 1996, oil painting, China Academy of Art, Hangzhou) has addressed realities of our time through a wide range of media—including photography, painting, video, sculpture, and installation. A key figure of a pioneering generation of artists from China who sought to define “conceptual art” on their own terms against the backdrop of rapid societal transformation, Liu has developed an oeuvre that challenges art historical tropes of abstraction, figuration, and the readymade. Known for his virtuosic command of sites and scale, he reconfigures fragments from the urban environment, historical sources, and bodily forms to create sculptural installations that evoke awe and agitation. With a sense of urgency, his work captures and critiques the reoccurring conflicts and contradictions in society with which we must contend.
The Genesis Facade Commission at The Met will be Liu’s first major presentation in the United States, following solo exhibitions in important museums in Beijing, Shanghai, Seoul, and Cleveland in the past decade. He has been featured in prestigious and historic group exhibitions, including the inaugural China Pavilion at the 51st Venice Biennale (2005); Shanghai Biennial (2004, 2010); Lyon Biennale (2007, 2015); Sharjah Biennial (2013); Art and China after 1989: Theater of the World, Guggenheim Museum, New York, and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2018); The Allure of Matter: Material Art from China, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2019); and the 58th Venice Biennale (2019), among others. Liu lives and works in Beijing, China.