The Metropolitan Museum of Art has announced Iranian-born German artist Nairy Baghramian as the next participant in its Fall 2023 Facade Commission series.

Baghramian follows Carol Bove, Wangechi Mutu, and last year’s Hew Locke for the fourth installment of the series, which first began in 2019 under the auspices of museum Director Max Hollein. 

The museum says: “These projects are the latest in The Met’s series of contemporary commissions in which the Museum invites artists to create new works of art, establishing a dialogue between the artist's practice, The Met collection, the physical Museum, and The Met's audiences.”

Baghramian, also the winner of the 2022 Nasher Prize, will install four abstract polychromatic sculptures as part of the commission. Working in the blank niches left behind after Richard Hunt Morris was unable to complete his work on the museum in 1902, the sculptures are said to have components that evoke images of flotsam and will be titled Scratching the Back.

Baghramian’s installation will complement Lauren Halsey’s afrofuturist Roof Garden Commission, which had to be delayed a year over logistical issues and will now open on April 18th. 35-year-old Jacolby Satterwhite will also take over the museum's Great Hall with a multimedia installation and performance series taking place from October 2nd through November 26th.

Hollein promised the installations will together “challenge and expand our dialogue with the museum as a site of artistic discourse and community experience.” 

The Facade Commission kicks off on September 7th and will remain on view until May 19th, 2023.