Warren King (b. 1970) is an American artist based in New York City working in figurative sculpture, relief art, and installation. Drawing on a background in structural engineering — with degrees from MIT and Stanford — he transforms corrugated cardboard into life-sized works that explore belonging, diaspora, and the people, histories, and myths of his Chinese American ancestry. His practice examines personal relationships to community and immigration, using the material constraints of cardboard as a framework for creative problem-solving.
Born and raised in Wisconsin, King has also lived in California and Sweden, and his work has been exhibited throughout Europe as well as the United States. He is a recipient of the Alex J. Ettl Grant from the National Sculpture Society and the NYSCA/NYFA Artist Fellowship for Craft/Sculpture. He will be featured in “The King of Cardboard” in Season 4 of In the Making, the PBS American Masters and Firelight Media documentary series, premiering May of 2026.
Full CV here
Over the past decade, I've made a series of sculptures inspired by the stories of my parents, my grandparents, and my family — tracing the path they took from China to the quiet suburbs of the Midwest. Working through these stories led, unexpectedly, to new insights: forgotten memories, familiar moments that revealed new meanings, and a growing sense of the larger narrative that connects them. Those insights led to more sculptures.
Collected here are the essays that emerged from that process, alongside photographs of the sculptures. Together, they form an ongoing archive of my attempt to understand life within the diaspora — the pull between Western and Chinese identities, and the way experience travels across time and distance.
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