Zoe ZENGELIS, also known as Zoe Zenghelis, was born in Athens in 1937.

She received her first lessons in painting and drawing in Athens with Orestis Kanelis. She later moved to London, where she studied stage design and painting at Regent Street Polytechnic during the late 1950s and early 1960s, studying under artists including Frank Auerbach, Lawrence Gowing and Leon Kossoff.

Zengelis began her artistic career as a founding member of the Office for Metropolitan Architecture, OMA, alongside Rem Koolhaas, Elia Zenghelis and Madelon Vriesendorp. Within OMA, she produced paintings, drawings and presentation works for architectural projects, exhibitions and publications. Her use of colour, light and atmosphere played an important role in shaping the visual identity of the group’s early architectural representations.

Her work moves between painting, architecture and the imagination of space. It is characterised by geometric structure, vivid colour, clarity of form and a distinctive sense of spatial tension. Her compositions often evoke landscapes, cities, architectural fragments and abstract environments, creating images that combine modernist discipline with a poetic and sometimes surreal atmosphere.

From the 1980s onwards, Zengelis developed an independent painting practice while continuing to teach and contribute to architectural education. Her work has been exhibited in the United Kingdom, Greece, Europe and the United States, and is held in important collections, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York.

Zoe Zengelis remains recognised as an important Greek-born artist whose work occupies a distinctive position between painting, architectural representation and modern spatial imagination.