Iria Leino was an art student at the Ecole des Beaux Arts in Paris when a talent scout from a haute couture fashion house recruited her to model. She quickly became famous walking the runways of Europe and appearing in all the fashion magazines. By the mid-1960s she quit, anxious to find a cure for her bulimia and anorexia in New York City. In retrospect, she attributed her eating disorders to a strict diet regimen in the era of “Twiggy.” Her fame as a model followed her to America and in 1967 she appeared on the Johnny Carson Show. However, she stopped modeling and instead focused on developing her art. Iria set up an art studio in a 4000 square foot loft in the Soho Artist District. In the 1960s and 1970s, many artists moved into abandoned manufacturing places to take advantage of the huge spaces and high ceilings, with low rents due to the dilapidated conditions. These studio lofts became rent stabilized and as a result, she was able to remain there until her death in 2022, at the age of 89, paying literally $650 per month. She lived alone much like a hermit, without family, to create her art, her true love. Upon her death, her loft had become a time capsule housing more than 1,000 works of art.
Varpu Sihvonen, a reporter based in Finland, contacted Robert Alan Saasto, Esq., an attorney well known in the Finnish American community, to assist Iria with the problem of what to do with her art upon her death. Robert Saasto set up a Trust for the art to be promoted by the Trust upon her death. Over time, a working group evolved for that purpose. The “core” of that group regularly met at the loft to share information and to coordinate efforts to promote Iria and her art.
On March 22, 2024, the coordinating meeting was held on the sixth floor at the Art Sdio Loft of Iria Leino in Soho at 135 Greene Street in New York City. There has been considerable progress in the two years since her death to present Iria to the public as the first Finnish American female pioneer of abstract painting in America.
Critical to this project was the “coming on board” of Peter Hastings Falk, Curator and Editor of Discoveries in American Art. He was successful in securing the interest of Harper’s Gallery in NYC, who agreed to present Iria’s art in a solo exhibition starting on September 5, 2024, at their gallery located at 534 West 22 Street, in Chelsea, New York City.
Jarmo Sareva, the Consul General of Finland to New York, Jaana Sareva and Anssi Vallius, Special Adviser for Cultural Affairs at the Consulate, have all been very active in this promotion as well as Kati Laakso, Executor Director of the Finnish Cultural Institute of New York. Julie Lasky, an independent reporter for The New York Times, is currently writing an article about Iria and the vanishing artist lofts. She interviewed the Consul General who expressed the pride that the Finnish American community has for Iria and her accomplishments, which have to date never been revealed, but which are now at the verge of serious critical recognition.
A documentary film and book about Iria are also in progress. Janna Kyllastinen is a Brooklyn- based documentary filmmaker from Finland. She is producing a film with the assistance of Kati Aho, an entrepreneurial creative director in the fashion, media, and advertising sectors. Varpu Sihvonen, a reporter from Finland who personally knew Iria for many years, is writing a biographical book about Iria’s personal life and struggles. Peter Hastings Falk, has recently published an essay revealing why Iria’s art be recognized as a significant “new discovery.” The main purpose of the most recent meeting was to bring these different elements together to share information and ideas to assist each in their respective inputs to the project to “make Iria famous.”
The first major accomplishment of this group is the solo exhibition at Harper’s Gallery at 504 W 22nd Street, in Chelsea, New York, on September 5, 2024, to which the public is invited. Janna Kyllastinen’s five- minute trailer introducing the documentary film will play at the gallery during the exhibition, running through the month of September.
Robert Alan Saasto, Esq.
Peter Hastings Falk, Curator
Ameriikan ihmisiä 