Biography

Ellis King (b. 1989) is a British figurative painter based in Norwich, UK.

In 2025 she was awarded the SQFT Gallery Exhibition Prize at the Women in Art Prize, leading to her debut London solo exhibition, Spilt Milk, at SQFT:Space Gallery in 2026. The same year she was runner-up in the inaugural Well Hung Painting Prize and shortlisted for the BTA Art Prize. In 2025 she was selected for the ING Discerning Eye exhibition at Mall Galleries and appeared on Sky Arts’ Portrait Artist of the Year (Series 12).

King has exhibited with galleries including Thompson’s Gallery (London & Aldeburgh), Prince & Pilgrim (Richmond) and Clifton Fine Art (Bristol). Her work is held in private collections across the UK, Europe, Canada and the United States.

Statement

I paint the female figure to explore the emotional and psychological realities of womanhood: identity and inequality, resilience and vulnerability, and the quieter experiences of private life that are often absorbed, minimised or left unspoken.

I returned to painting seriously around seven years ago, as a way to understand my own experience of being a woman. Much of my recent work is self-portraiture set in domestic spaces. Bathrooms, bedrooms and kitchens become psychologically charged, holding traces of memory, emotion and the labour that so often goes unseen.

Working in oil and acrylic, I bring the literal and the semi-imagined together. The figure is recognisable, while the space around it dissolves, creating a tension between the physical world and the interior one. Rather than illustrating a particular story, each painting holds what has happened, what is being felt and what remains unresolved.

Enquiries: hi@ellisking.co.uk