Emily Ding

Emily Ding is an American muralist, born and raised in Houston, Texas, to parents who emigrated from China. She discovered spray paint during college, at an abandoned apartment site, and left school without any formal art training to paint walls full time.

Her murals are built around animals and human figures rendered in saturated colour gradients with a loose, painterly hand. Wildlife works as a cast of characters: lions, wolves and hares carry human feeling, and she deliberately slips tension into otherwise calm compositions. Recent pieces bring portraiture and natural elements into the same frame.

Now based in Los Angeles, she paints across the United States and abroad, with walls for Antelope Valley Walls in California, Bright Walls in Jackson, Michigan, SpraySeeMO in Kansas City, Waterford Walls in Ireland, the Cheltenham Paint Festival in the UK, plus murals in Italy and China.