On view through next June, Liu Wei's sculpture series “Speculation” (2026) contemplates the contradictory elements of collapse and civic transformation. Ten years after his last solo show in the city, the Beijing-based artist returns to New York with brand-new works for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Genesis Facade Commission. Flanking both sides of The Met's main entrance, Liu's sculptures feature metal and fiberglass composite forms melding abstracted archaeological and architectural references. Reflective surfaces and modernist spheres are nestled in or balanced on vertical masses of biomorphic shapes that appear flimsily bound together with nails, cords, ropes, and metal bars.

Enormous hands are incorporated at the base of the two primary sculptures of Speculation, appearing as distorted mudras (symbolic gestures for energy redirection in Hinduism and Buddhism) while emphasizing humanity's role in making the imagined tangible. On the left-hand sculpture, Liu includes a stitched bovine rawhide that's tightly contoured along one of the abstracted shapes, while a matte black form resembling a fireplace mantle's decorative wooden scroll is central to the work on the right. Various industrial and interior finishes are used across the sculptures, simultaneously contrasting with and complementing The Met's limestone façade and monumental Corinthian columns.

Liu’s Speculation (2026) reflects on the contradictory elements of collapse and civic transformation, offering a compelling dialogue between the past and the imagined future. As we stand before these sculptures, we are invited to reflect on the impermanence of our structures and the human narratives that shape them. Is this a vision of the future, or a critique of our present?