NEW YORK — At the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Manhattan on the 2nd, four sculptures filling the niches of the building's main entrance facade came into view at once. They form the exhibition "The Genesis Facade Commission: Liu Wei, Speculation."
The works, the largest measuring 5 meters, fill the recessed niches of the facade and add to the museum's grandeur. The Met selects a new artist each year to present large-scale installations on its front facade. Genesis signed a five-year partnership with the Met in 2024 and runs The Genesis Facade Commission. The program began in 2024 with Korean artist Lee Bul, followed by U.S. artist Jeffrey Gibson in 2025, and this year features work by Chinese artist Liu Wei. Liu has explored contemporary life since the late 1990s across a wide range of media, including photography, painting, video, sculpture and installation. Drawing on personal experience and an original perspective, the artist has illuminated the tensions and collisions embedded in periods of change. Through this, Liu sought to show visitors the ceaseless cycle of dismantling and restoration that human history has undergone. For this exhibition, the artist built the theme around the visual motif of the hand, an object long depicted as carrying rich artistic, cultural and symbolic meaning.
Lesley Ma, a curator of modern and contemporary art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, said Liu studied at the China Academy of Art, known for its progressive academic tradition, and witnessed the sweeping transformation that China and the rest of the world experienced from the 1980s. She added that the process of dismantling and restoration arising from globalization, particularly the internal migration of labor within China, became an important foundation for this work.
Beyond Genesis, Hyundai Motor is also introducing creative work by a range of contemporary artists through the New Museum. The exhibition "Hyundai Translocal Series: Ho Tzu Nyen," sponsored by Hyundai Motor (005380.KS), opened on the 24th of last month. Launched last year, the Hyundai Translocal Series is a new arts initiative in which domestic and overseas art institutions collaborate on joint research and present new work. This edition is a site-specific project connecting New York and Ulsan. It proposes distinct urban experiences through the artist's reading of the architectural and cultural context of each city and museum.
