Artist: Leonor Fini

'Paintings, like dreams, have a life of their own and I have always painted very much the way I dream.' - Leonor Fini

Leonor Fini: Small Faces inaugurates Nagas’ new space at 47 W 28th St, a historic New York City Landmark once central to Tin Pan Alley and later home to Galeria Nara Roesler. Now, Nagas begins a new chapter in its legacy, bringing fresh perspectives to a place long tied to artistic innovation.

Leonor Fini (1907–1996) was a singular figure in 20th-century art, known for her refusal to conform— whether to artistic movements, societal expectations, or gender norms. Though often associated with the Surrealists, she distanced herself from the group, rejecting André Breton’s rigid dogma and his tendency to reduce women to passive muses. Nevertheless, she was one of the few women included in the landmark 1936 International Surrealist Exhibition in London, alongside artists such as Salvador Dalí and Max Ernst. Unlike many of her male contemporaries, she did not see the unconscious as a realm of male dominance but rather as a space of fluid identities, shifting power, and self-possession.

Fini’s work was deeply thematic, returning obsessively to certain recurring figures: sphinxes, feline creatures, skeletons, sorceresses, and ambiguous androgynous beings. Among these, the small-scale face held a privileged place in her iconography. Faces in her art were rarely fixed or stable; instead, they often appeared in transformation, layered with multiple expressions, or dissolving into spectral forms. These small portraits—whether delicate, ghostly sketches or intense, highly stylized studies—offered a psychological depth that belied their modest size.

Her work on paper was an essential part of this practice. Unlike her large oil paintings, which often depicted grand, theatrical scenes, her small drawings and sketches were spaces of introspection. They reveal an artist attuned to subtle emotional states, capable of rendering intense expressions with just a few delicate lines. The mediums she favored—ink, red chalk, graphite—allowed for an intimacy and immediacy that contrasted with the lush opulence of her canvases. These materials also echoed her admiration for Old Masters, particularly Leonardo da Vinci and Parmigianino, whose drawings demonstrated a similar fascination with ambiguity and transformation.

Though frequently overshadowed by her larger works, Fini’s small-scale drawings offer a profound insight into her artistic vision. They embody her lifelong preoccupations with metamorphosis, identity, and the fluid boundary between reality and dream. This exhibition brings together a selection of these lesser-known but crucial works, demonstrating that even in the most intimate formats, Fini’s art retains its force: complex, unsettling, and utterly hypnotic.