Co-founder of Meow Wolf has died. Five things to know about Matt King

Matt King, co-founder of the immersive art experience Meow Wolf, has died, the company said in an Instagram post on July 11.

He was 37 years old.

The post did not provide details of King’s death, but the company said it was “sudden” and has left the Meow Wolf community “devastated.”

“Matt’s spirit will live on in our collective heart,” the company said. “We will continue to honor him by carrying his brilliance forward in our work and in our everyday lives.”

Here are five things to know about the artist and the Meow Wolf franchise.

1. He was involved with Meow Wolf from the start

In its tribute post to King, Meow Wolf said he was present at the company’s very first meeting in 2008. He and co-founder Quinn Tincher “created Meow Wolf’s first immersive art show before anyone at Meow Wolf even knew what immersive art was.”

“Meow Wolf was part of Matt’s life purpose, which was to create a better world for humanity,” the post said. “He did that.”

King was one of Meow Wolf’s seven co-founders and the company began as an “informal DIY collective of Santa Fe artists” that eventually developed Meow Wolf’s “distinctive style of immersive, maximalist environments that encourage audience participation,” according to the company’s website.

2. King helped with the development of 34 Meow Wolf projects

Some of King’s best-known Meow Wolf projects include the surreal grocery store Omega Mart, which “promises deals on strange and beguiling products that are sourced on-site in a supernatural factory,” and Area15, a “wanderland of art, music and entertainment” near the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada.

But King was involved with dozens of Meow Wolf works, including its first exhibit, The House of Eternal Return, based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reported.

The popular exhibit is “part haunted house, part choose-your-own-adventure, and part jungle gym,” according to Atlas Obscura. Visitors get to wander, explore — and occasionally stoop — through a two-story Victorian house with a mysterious secret — the family that once lived there disappeared under mysterious circumstances.

The exhibit contains over 70 rooms of immersive art and “takes participants on a macrocosmic adventure of seemingly endless possibilities,” the company’s website says.

3. King wanted his work to help people ‘question reality’

In a 2021 interview with Artnet, King and Meow Wolf co-founder Sean Di Ianni said Meow Wolf was creating its own universe, somewhat similar to how movies in the Marvel franchise all take place in a bigger “cinematic universe.”

The story Meow Wolf is trying to tell with its exhibits “has so many tendrils that will break off in so many ways,” King said in the interview.

“What we want is for people leaving to walk out questioning what is real, what is reality?” King said. “Who am I, and what am I, what can I really do to make a positive change on the world? We’re not dystopian, that’s not our outlook. We don’t want doom and gloom.”

Later in the interview, King reiterated that he hopes the exhibits give people hope instead of leaving them with a cynical perspective on the world.

“A lot of people in our world think that we are just totally f—--, you know?” King said. “And it is a smaller group of people who are actually saying that, no, it’s not too late. ... And we have the ability to spark the imagination and then turn this thing around.”

4. King was a Texan at heart

Outside of his artistry, King was also a “multi-instrumentalist” and an outdoorsman, The Las Vegas Review-Journal reported. He taught outdoor education classes to elementary school students in the Dallas-Fort Worth area and was from Arlington, the outlet reported.

Meow Wolf announced plans to open one of its signature immersive exhibits at Grapevine Mills, a mall in Dallas, earlier this year, Fort Worth Culture Map reported. The exhibit is scheduled to open in 2023 and will occupy space that was previously filled by a big-box store, the outlet reported.

Meow Wolf also has plans to open several other “portals” throughout Texas, and more than 50% of the artists contributing to them are from the state. King himself was at Grapevine Mills when the mall first opened in the 1990s, the outlet reported.

5. Meow Wolf isn’t going anywhere

In a statement, Meow Wolf CEO Jose Tolosa said the company plans to keep its exhibits open, The Denver Post reported.

“We will honor Matt’s spirit by carrying his brilliance forward in our work and in our everyday lives, building upon the monumental legacy that he leaves behind,” Tolosa said, according to the outlet. “Thousands have been deeply touched by the artistic genius of his work, and nothing speaks to Matt’s influence more than the Meow Wolf community who is coming together in his honor.”

The company will take a “pause” internally and keep its offices and artist facilities open for people to gather following King’s death, the Denver Post reported. Erin Barnes, a spokesperson for the company, said the Meow Wolf locations in Santa Fe, Las Vegas and Denver will stay open.

“It’s a devastating loss, but it’s not like Meow Wolf will cease to exist. It will go on in his name and honor him because I think that’s what he would want,” Barnes told the outlet.

This story was originally published July 12, 2022 at 12:30 PM.