Read about Iria in the The New York Times

A Finnish Artist and the Apartment and Paintings She Left Behind in SoHo 

“Iria Leino, a pioneer in New York in the ’60s and a mystery to many in the art world.”

“Iria was the first Finnish woman abstract painter in America. Prolific but reclusive, her paintings are a uniquely vibrant cultural fusion of Finland and America. Her loft in SoHo became a virtual time capsule preserving five decades of paintings.”

Iria’s atelier in SoHo is one of the city’s last surviving original artist lofts.

Iria studied drawing in Helsinki, before traveling to Paris’ École des Beaux-Arts in the late 50s. She was soon discovered to become one of haute couture’s first supermodels and a fashion muse, known simply as “Iria.”

At the height of her fashion career, Iria left everything behind to work as an artist. She moved to New York to study painting at the Art Students League under teachers like Larry Poons. After a fallen glass bottle fractured Iria’s skull, she had a spiritual vision to dedicate her life to painting. 

Iria’s career began auspiciously. In 1967, a few years after her arrival in NY, she was already a guest on Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show. In 1973, The New York Times praised Iria’s abstract paintings as part of “Women Choose Women,” the first New York City museum exhibit devoted exclusively to the work of women artists. In Finland, Iria’s works were displayed for the first time in 1977 at Amos Anderson art museum. She was soon on the radar of well established art dealers. She also created textile designs for Marimekko.

Ultimately fame proved elusive and she retreated to her atelier. Despite no lack of suitors, Iria never married or had children. She became a devout Buddhist and an early follower of the famed yogi and “Woodstock guru” Sri Swami Satchidananda. Later in life, Iria had stopped painting with brushes entirely, and after her death no brushes could be found in her studio — only an assortment of trowels, scrapers, and squeegees.

No one was allowed to see Iria paint - not even her assistant, “Iria was strictly an ascetic, tied to her studio.” After her death, nearly 1000 paintings and artworks were discovered at her SoHo loft.