04/09/2026
IRIA LEINO
‘Inner Light’
20 August - 17 October
After surviving a serious accident in 1968 Leino converted to Buddhism in which she found a comforting and consistent philosophy. After her recovery, Leino embraced a monastic Buddhist discipline, embedding the insights she learned from her faith into her formal studio experiments.
This ushered in her ongoing practice of painting as meditation, performed with classical music. The meditative approach is reflected in the exhibition with Leino’s Buddhist Rain series. Leino painstakingly overlaid thousands of diagonal strokes in horizontal rows on the canvas, suggesting a driving rain, upon a principal field of colour. For the first time, she also painted this new series on paper, including in pastels. Richly innovative and delicate, this was a progression that continued over four decades. Before every painting session Leino started with at least one hour of Buddhist chanting, Leino recalled;
“I had a Buddhist hymn ringing in my ears constantly, which I then painted onto the canvas. I had a Hindu mantra that had been given to me, but you were not supposed to stay it aloud. So, I repeated that in my paintings. Then came the visual side and now I only see the art.”
Image I & II
Iria Leino
Buddhism (Only Way) , 1970
Acrylic on canvas
200 x 196 cm
Image III
Iria in her Green Street Loft, 1972
With Buddhist Rain work in progress
Courtesy The Iria Leino Trust, New York
All images copyright The Iria Leino Trust, NY