Matt King: Becoming Light, an exhibition at CONTAINER focusing primarily on paintings from a prolific period toward the end of Matt King’s life, includes Untitled 001 (2022). Photo: Kate Russell
About a week after Matt King's untimely death in July 2022, his fiancée Han Santana-Sayles learned that his work had been chosen to appear in the Spring/Break Art Show in New York City.
King had poured his soul into Meow Wolf since co-founding it in 2008, Santana-Sayles says, and was energized about shifting his focus to his personal art. Acceptance into Spring/Break was a major endorsement of the 37-year-old's abilities on that front, hinting at changes to come in King's young life. It would have marked the first time in eight years that the Arlington, Texas, native exhibited his solo work in public.