Liu Wei, Speculation

For The Met’s 2026 Genesis Facade Commission, Beijing-based artist Liu Wei places four large-scale sculptures across the museum’s Fifth Avenue exterior. Titled Speculation, the installation centers on the recurring form of the human hand, using it as a familiar motif that shifts between bodily, architectural, and more fantastical associations.

The commission continues Liu’s interest in fragments drawn from urban environments, historical imagery, and the body, while responding directly to the scale of The Met’s facade. Shaped in part by his experience of rapid transformation in contemporary China, Speculation considers cycles of rupture and repair and marks Liu’s first major presentation in the United States.