BIOGRAPHY

Iria Leino was a visual artist and trailblazer of the SoHo loft scene in New York City. Upon receiving a degree from the Academy of Fine Arts, Helsinki in 1955, Leino moved to Paris to continue her studies at the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts. Here, she caught the attention of the late Madame Grès—the queen of haute couture—and Karl Lagerfeld, thus launching her career as a fashion model of international renown. Despite being embraced by the world of luxury, she suffered immensely during this time; at the peak of her success in 1964, Leino abandoned her modeling career and relocated to New York City’s then-epicenter of the bohemian community, SoHo. In 1968, Leino suffered a severe skull injury that left her in a coma for weeks. This health crisis proved to be a turning point: upon her recovery, Leino embraced a monastic Buddhist discipline, channeling newfound spiritual insight into her studio practice.

During her lifetime, Leino’s work largely remained hidden from the public eye, with notable exceptions. In 1973, Leino was included in the groundbreaking Women Choose Women, curated by Lucy Lippard, the first major large-scale presentation of female artists in New York. The same year, she participated in Second Annual Contemporary Reflections, Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art, Ridgefield, CT. From the mid-1970s to her death in 2022, Leino garnered sporadic recognition in the form of museum exhibitions in Finland and Sweden, institutional patronage, as well as a multi-year installation at John F. Kennedy Airport’s Finnair terminal. However, Leino’s interests never allied with the commercial gallery system that seemingly flourished around her—in her mind, the competitive culture industry was all too similar to the fashion world she left behind so long ago.

“Leino’s handling, however restrained, admits manifold inflections. The minimal traits are either loosely dispersed or densely crosshatched; they stand out clearly in a serial row or blend almost indiscernibly into the field. Anchoring the infinity of color to the finitude of the hand, they ground contemplation in a distinctly embodied practice.”

Molly Warnock, Art Forum, January 2025

Iria Leino with pastel works from her Buddhist Rain series, 1972. Courtesy of the Archives of the Iria Leino Trust NY