Iria Leino

It is a privilege for a contemporary art gallery to become part of the history of modern art. Galerie Forsblom has been granted the rare opportunity to explore an unjustly forgotten artistic estate in which history is palpably present. It is with special excitement and anticipation that we announce our forthcoming exhibition featuring Iria Leino.

Iria Leino (1932–2022), a Helsinki-born artist and international supermodel of the 1950s, transitioned from high fashion to painting. At the height of her international modeling career, she left the fashion world to settle in New York’s SoHo, where she forged a career as a painter. Her artistic journey reflected the cultural and artistic upheavals of New York in the 1960s.

Leino’s monumental acrylic paintings of the late 1960s reflect the influence of New York Abstract Expressionism, shaped by her entry into the local art scene and her studies with American artist Larry Poons. In her large-scale, often square-format works, vivid colors are combined with simple abstract forms.

This was followed by a growing interest in Buddhism and yoga, which introduced a quiet sense of spirituality into her work. Her paintings from this era emphasize color, spatiality, and recurring, often curved forms, through which she explores perception, rhythm, and spiritual themes. In her later practice, the painting process became increasingly meditative, with seriality playing a central role. Her technique evolved from traditional brushwork toward more experimental methods, including spatulas and scrapers, and later a combination of raw pigments and acrylic emulsion.

Although active in the New York art scene, Leino worked relatively independently.