In the rise of young female artists in Finland in the 1970s, Leena Luostarinen was a dominant figure.
Her powerful, personal paintings, often featuring animals, expanded the field of Finnish painting with novel and unconventional images. Over the years, internationality, arte povera and neo-expressiveness developed in her production into an individual and recognisable approach to the physical dimension of painting. The intrinsic value and importance of colour either as a heavy, thick mass or as an extremely thin layer of paint resembling a reflection provide her works with multiple layers and a mysterious magic of a temptation that takes the viewer to a different world.
Leena Luostarinen received several significant recognitions for her work, including the Finnish Art Society’s Ducat Prize and the Pro Finlandia Medal. She also worked as Professor of Painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki.