Michael Lin: Pentachrome

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 5th Ave, 10028, New York City

July 1, 2026 – December 31, 2027

Michael Lin’s *Pentachrome* is a site-specific installation in The Met’s Great Hall Escalator, bringing contemporary art into the space for the first time. Inspired by the Museum’s collection and architecture, it asks visitors to see the Great Hall, its Balcony, and the surrounding works in a new way. The installation responds to the long history of Asian art, especially Chinese ceramics, being displayed in the Great Hall as decorative accents within a grand European-style architectural setting. Lin highlights and reverses that relationship by making Asian imagery the focus rather than the ornament. As visitors ride the escalator, they are surrounded by oversized birds and flowers taken from two Qing-dynasty porcelain vases. Applied in an irregular, poster-like way inspired by urban wild posting, the images break up the formal museum setting and create an immersive, street-influenced experience. The work draws attention to the paradoxical position of Asian art in the Museum: central to the visual experience, yet often treated as secondary.