Sculptor, painter, and printmaker Tadeusz Adam Zielinski was born in Trzebinia, Poland on February 4,1907. Showing an early aptitude for visual art, he began learning how to restore religious icons and architectural details under the tutelage of his father at just thirteen years old. He went on to study at the Krakow State School of Decorative Arts and Artistic Industry from 1925–'28, working as a jounreyman carpenter to support himself, and then reentered the school in 1932 to complete his diploma in interior design and furniture design. Beginning in 1936 he operated a carpentry workshop at the School of Crafts in Zawichost and again in Kostopol from 1938-'39. Meanwhile, he also designed furniture for the Meblostyl design magazine in Karakow.

While serving as a reserve Second Lieutenant in the Polish army during the Second World War, he was taken as a prisoner-of-war in the Kozielsk II camp in Russia in early 1941. While imprisoned, he carved a limewood relief, "Our Lady of Kozielsk," using materials found in the camp and with chisels he made himself using scrap metal. This relief was used for worship in the camp, and later in the Polish Army's Holy Mass celebrations. It is now on display at the Andrzej Bobola church in Hammersmith, London.

Following his release from the prison camp later that year, he joined the newly formed Polish Armed Forces in the USSR, in General Albert Anders' army, with whom he was stationed in Palestine from 1944–'48. During this time he was encouraged by the general to keep up his creative work, as it was in the service of hospitals and places of Christian worship for active duty soldiers. He made statues and reliefs for various hospitals in Tiberias and Jerusalem, where he entered a competition to reconstruct the third and fourth Stations of the Cross, winning first place.

Soon after his tour of duty was completed in 1949, Zielinski moved to a military camp in Scotland, UK, before settling in London. In 1953 joined a loose association of Polish artists, writers, and intellectuals who met at Cafe Lowiczanka for discussions and debates disallowed during the war years. He began working and exhibiting regularly throughout the UK, including the Festival of Britain, 1951, at Lambeth Palace; Colour and Rhythm: paintings and sculptures by Polish artists in Great Britain, New Vision Centre, 1964; Cassel Gallery, London, 1965; Contemporary Art by Polish Artists abroad, Imperial College, 1970; and "Polish Art During the War: 1939-1945," POSK, London, among many others.

His work continued to focus on religious themes throughout his career, and became known primarily for his sculpture in metal, stone, and concrete. He accepted commissions for major sculptural and relief works from various municiple and private clients, and found success as an artist until his death on November 25, 1993.