Four bronze figures are set to transform The Met’s iconic Fifth Avenue facade
A new large-scale installation is coming to New York City. Artist Jeffrey Gibson is using the museum's exterior to explore the profound links between humanity, the environment, and the animal kingdom through a series of striking, figurative sculptures.
For the 2025 Genesis Facade Commission, acclaimed interdisciplinary artist Jeffrey Gibson is bringing a new dimension to the exterior of The Metropolitan Museum of Art. The installation, titled 'The Animal That Therefore I Am,' features four large-scale bronze sculptures: a deer, a coyote, a squirrel, and a hawk. By placing these figures on the museum's historic Fifth Avenue facade, Gibson seeks to bridge the gap between the natural world of the Hudson Valley and Central Park and the urban landscape of New York.
Born in 1972, Gibson’s personal history is as diverse as his artistic medium. Having spent his childhood moving between the United States, Germany, and Korea, his perspective is deeply global. His heritage includes Cherokee descent and membership in the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. This background informs a practice that often challenges the historical tendency to flatten or misappropriate Indigenous cultures, instead using abstraction, text, and vibrant color to present more complex narratives.
The project is more than a mere display of craftsmanship; it is an invitation to rethink our relationship with the non-human world. Through these animal forms, Gibson aims to foster a sense of empathy and heightened awareness regarding animal life and the broader environment. This installation marks the sixth commission in a prestigious series of works dedicated to the museum's exterior, continuing a tradition of transforming the building's architecture into a canvas for profound ecological and social reflection.
Source: Meet the Artist—The Genesis Facade Commission: Jeffrey Gibson, The Animal That Therefore I Am
