Iria Leino: From Pouring to Paintings-as-Sculpture

Iria Leino's art intertwines Finnish nature with spiritual searching. Born in Helsinki and working as an artist in New York from the 1960s onward, Leino's works naturally absorbed imagery from Finland's waters and forests as well as from meditation and the avant-garde artistic circles of SoHo. Leino sought to cherish her Finnish heritage and connection to nature in her paintings, while her spiritual quest led her to Buddhism. From Pouring to Paintings-as-Sculpture is the first thematic exhibition examining the development and significance of Leino's three-dimensional paintings. The artist's first exhibition at Galerie Forsblom was seen in 2025, and it was also her first exhibition in Finland since her death. Now the exhibition's curator, art historian Peter Hastings Falk, has assembled a whole that focuses on the artist's later production and at the same time examines the shift from the flat picture surface toward sculptural painting. Iria Leino is a distinctive figure in Finnish art. After graduating from the University of Art and Design Helsinki in 1955, she left her hometown of Helsinki for Paris, where she continued her studies at the École des Beaux-Arts. In 1964 she moved to New York and in 1966 settled in SoHo to devote herself to artistic work.