Jeffrey Gibson to Create Sculptures for The Met's Facade

The Metropolitan Museum of Art will present new sculptures by Jeffrey Gibson on its Fifth Avenue facade, starting September 12, 2025. Gibson, a member of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians and of Cherokee descent, has created four figurative sculptures for The Genesis Facade Commission: Jeffrey Gibson, The Animal That Therefore I Am, which will be on view until June 9, 2026.

The sculptures reflect on the relationships between living beings and the environment. This commission is the sixth in a series of contemporary commissions for the facade.

"Jeffrey Gibson is one of the most remarkable artists of his generation and a pioneering figure within the field of native and Indigenous art," said Max Hollein, The Met’s Marina Kellen French Director and Chief Executive Officer. "These new works are based on his signature use of unconventional materials and reimagined forms to explore often overlooked histories and the natural world. We look forward to unveiling his monumental sculptures for The Met’s iconic Fifth Avenue facade."

David Breslin, Leonard A. Lauder Curator in Charge, Modern and Contemporary Art, added, "Jeffrey Gibson is an artist brilliantly attuned to the varieties of life our world holds—the human, the animal, the land itself. His art vibrates and bristles with that life, the histories that never leave us, and the futures that his vision makes possible."

Gibson's work incorporates Indigenous aesthetic and material traditions. His art reveals new modalities for abstraction, the use of text, and color, applying his formal mastery to concepts such as human connection and collective identity. Gibson’s work offers a critique of the reductive ways in which Indigenous culture has been historically flattened and misappropriated.

Jane Panetta, the Aaron I. Fleischman Curator in the Department of Modern and Contemporary Art at The Met, consulted with the artist on the commission. The exhibition will be featured on The Met’s website and on social media via the hashtags #GenesisFacadeCommission and #MetJeffreyGibson.