ELLEN ZAKS

Ellen Zaks is a British painter, published poet, and classically trained ballet dancer, born in London and now living and working in Málaga, Spain. Her multidisciplinary practice brings together painting, poetry, and movement, exploring the human figure as a gateway into questions of energy, consciousness, transformation, and the unseen forces that connect us. Drawing upon a lifelong relationship with dance, Zaks describes her approach simply: “I paint as a dancer.” 

Zaks holds a B.A. in Expressive Arts from Brighton University and continued her studies at Sir John Cass College of Art in London. Her work has been exhibited extensively throughout the United Kingdom and Europe, with exhibitions in London, Brighton, Málaga, Marbella, Paris, and Granada, as well as in the United States at Rochester Contemporary Art Center in New York. Her work has also been presented through Hay Hill Gallery in Mayfair, London, and is held in private collections across England, Canada, Holland, Sweden, Japan, and the United States.

Influenced by William Blake, Matisse, Rodin, ancient Egyptian art, mythology, the Romantic poets, and discoveries in quantum physics, Zaks balances disciplined figurative practice with intuition and surrender. Her paintings move beyond physical appearance toward the invisible—where matter becomes movement, movement becomes energy, and the boundaries between the body and the greater universe begin to dissolve.

Alongside her visual practice, Zaks is the published author of two poetry collections, Outcries and What Binds Us. For her, poetry and painting emerge from the same imaginative territory, creating a body of work in which art, movement, science, mythology, and the mysteries of human experience continually intersect.