Spilt Milk: An Evening with Ellis King at Her Debut London Solo Exhibition

From the moment people began arriving, there was a wonderful energy surrounding the exhibition. The gallery quickly filled with a warm and welcoming crowd of family, friends, fellow artists and art enthusiasts — many of whom have followed and supported Ellis at different stages of her creative journey.

There was a genuine feeling of anticipation in the room as people encountered this new body of work for the first time.

And the paintings did not disappoint.

Spilt Milk is an intimate and emotionally considered collection, centred around the quieter realities of womanhood and the private moments that so often remain unseen. Through figurative painting and self-portraiture, Ellis explores vulnerability, identity, motherhood, exhaustion and self-perception, placing these experiences within familiar domestic environments that become psychologically charged spaces of their own. Ellis King

What struck me while looking through the exhibition was the stillness within the paintings. There is a sense that we are being allowed into moments we would not ordinarily witness — those brief spaces before someone collects themselves and everyday life continues.

The title Spilt Milk feels especially fitting. Rather than rushing beyond difficult or uncomfortable emotions, the exhibition gives them space. Frustration, grief, doubt and exhaustion are not treated as passing inconveniences but as experiences worthy of being seen and acknowledged. GalleriesNow.net

Against that quietness, the atmosphere of the opening night created a beautiful contrast. Conversations flowed throughout the gallery, people gathered closely around the work and there was an unmistakable sense of pride and celebration surrounding what Ellis had achieved.

For me, that was made even more impressive by having witnessed just how much work went into bringing the exhibition together.

In a relatively short period of time, Ellis not only created the paintings themselves but worked through the many other elements involved in presenting a solo exhibition — planning, organising and ultimately welcoming a room full of people into the finished show.

Seeing that journey culminate in such a confident and beautifully presented exhibition was genuinely inspiring.

It was also a pleasure to meet some of Ellis’s family, friends and supporters. An artist’s journey is rarely something that happens entirely in isolation, and opening nights like this offer a glimpse of the community that often exists around the work: the conversations, encouragement, relationships and experiences gathered along the way.

The evening also marked an important milestone in Ellis’s career. Spilt Milk follows her receipt of the

SQFT:SpaceGallery Exhibition Prize at the 2025 Women in Art Prize, with this solo exhibition forming part of that award. ArtRabbit

Most importantly, though, Thursday night felt like a celebration of the work itself — thoughtful, vulnerable and beautifully executed paintings presented in a room filled with people genuinely excited to see where Ellis’s practice is heading.

Congratulations to Ellis on a fantastic opening and an incredibly well-deserved moment.

Spilt Milk — Ellis King
SQFT:Space Gallery, 95 Bell Street, London NW1 6TL
1 October – 5 November 2026