Emily King (Menghan Zhuang, 庄孟寒)

CalArts mourns the loss of Emily King (Menghan Zhuang, 庄孟寒), daughter, sister, friend, BFA 4 Art student, and a cherished member of the CalArts community. She arrived in Valencia four years ago from China to study art, but she is remembered by many faculty and students for her innate curiosity and breadth of interest in all the arts, often taking classes outside of her program in Art. Although her life tragically ended on Feb. 4, Emily’s family and the community are coming together to ensure that her art, her life, and her memory will not soon be forgotten.

Person painting colorful birds outdoors in a park with a watercolor palette. — Emily King (庄孟寒)

Remembering Emily

The CalArts community remembers Emily King (Menghan Zhuang, 庄孟寒)

Emily’s exuberance inspired many. She lifted up her colleagues through her presence, her play, her connection and dedication to a creative community that she leaned on, and a community that needed her. Though her time with us was cut short, Emily’s work, exuberance, and love of art and creation will keep us smiling, curious, and enchanted. May her memory be a blessing for all.

Emily was a student in my Foundation class, Fall 2021, which I was co-teaching with Lecia Dole-Recio and Alexandria Carrion. We were just returning to in-person instruction after many long months on Zoom, and it felt good and strange to be back in a physical classroom. Emily showed up 20 minutes before our first class and took a seat. I believe she was wearing a Van Gogh Starry Night bucket hat and knew she was in the right place. She was totally ready to go, and she was always so present in whatever she engaged in.

Emily’s enthusiasm and humor and joy were always motivating.

I often saw Emily in Steve’s Cafe, and I believe she probably loved that cafe more than anyone at CalArts. I was always amazed by the abundance of food on her tray and the wild combinations of things, which reminded me of her artwork and profuse installations. Abundance was, for Emily, a joy and a virtue and an aesthetic position.

Art gallery room with various colorful artworks and red banners. — Emily King - (abundant!) installation in A402 from the Foundation show, spring 2022

A wall adorned with various colorful artworks and photographs, with chairs and a table below them. — Emily King - Mid-Res show in the L Shape, fall 2023

Table with carved pumpkins and four masked individuals in the background near a whiteboard. — Photo by Michael Ned Holte - Foundation class, Fall 2021 - after Halloween pumpkin carving with Ariel Xie and Carol Zhang

People standing and sitting outdoors beside a brick wall, one extending an arm towards a liquid spill on the ground. — Photo by Michael Ned Holte - Emily King performing Mieko Shiomi’s Water Music for my Foundation Studio

A group of people gathered around a garden bed with roses on a patio. — Photo by Michael Ned Holte - Emily King with the class outside of Langley

... Emily was creatively a six-year girl in the body of a young woman. Her head was always in a bouncy art cloud and she could have easily walked off a cliff while listening to birds. But she could already see underneath the surface of things. Emily also had the essential X factor required of visionary artists. And so much curiosity! Too much sometimes.

I hope that what she created so far is somehow turned into a public experience of her work as she might have already reached a significant level of artistic achievement while at CalArts. Her vision was definitely up there in the high notes. Emily wanted to communicate with everyone and everything. She could render joy and be true. Complexity and a central symbol joined. Who can do that?

I cannot wrap my head around what happened to her. I cannot even think it. But as my student, she was a beautiful and gifted young person who I mentored and believed in. I still believe in her. A symbolic daughter is gone. A real artist has left this plane. Only grief and memory remain. I cannot imagine her parents in China.

... I will miss her terribly. I will never forget her. Curious dark eyes underneath huge glasses like you were over an upside down microscope with Emily looking up at you. She was funny for real like a cartoon. The world is diminished and deprived by her absence.

Emily King is King!

In the first years of my job at calarts I worked at the front desk and loved to chat with and greet staff, faculty and of course students. Emily would always come right over to the desk and ask how I was. When I’d ask her back she would always say, “I’m awesome!” She was so full of life and interesting and she was kind. She made me smile and she was always smiling. Truly a free spirit and someone I will never forget.

I know that she really loved material exploration. The image of her with her chair at our HOT SEAT Brutalist Furniture class show in the Main Gallery last December is a wonderful one (image below). I remember how excited she was about learning how to make her chair and how she did not want to leave it behind in the Super Shop after our weekly classes. She would carry it away in her arms after class, cradling it like precious cargo. My cherished memories of her are ones of her joy, her determination, and her commitment to a singular creative vision.

Emily King in a red shirt flashing a peace sign standing behind her handbuilt wooden chair. — Emily King with her chair, courtesy of Alexandria Carrion

[The photo below] was taken of her when she participated in EA’s [Experimental Animation] Garden Fair (November 7, 2024) last fall semester.

She was one of the few students in the Art program who vendored at the event. It was pleasant to have her joining my program’s community in displaying & selling her lovely handmade works.