Helena Zak was born in Stockholm, Sweden and lived in Paris before moving to Ireland in 1976. Zak began working as a full time artist in 1980 and was awarded an Arts Council bursary in 1981. Her first solo exhibition took place at the Triskel Arts Centre, Cork, in the same year. Her work has also been shown at the Exhibition of Visual Art, Limerick, the Oliver Dowling Gallery, Dublin, and Crawford Art Gallery, Cork.