Dear Iria

On the top floor of an old industrial building in SoHo, New York, lies a loft that has remained unchanged for more than half a century, the home of Iria (1932–2022), a model turned artist and an undiscovered Finnish pioneer of SoHo’s art scene.

Dear Iria moves between past and present, weaving together Iria’s diaries, found cassette tape recordings from a clairvoyant session, which provide the only surviving record of her voice, and contemporary documentary scenes that rediscover her life as a quietly unfolding mystery.

From a childhood marked by loss, Iria became a successful fashion model for the great Parisian houses of the 1950s before abandoning fame for a life devoted to abstract painting in New York. After a near-fatal accident in 1968, she embraced spirituality and committed herself fully to art.

As her loft is slowly emptied and her ashes scattered at sea, Dear Iria is a meditation on artistic devotion, radical self-determination, and the question that haunts every artist: what remains of a life dedicated to making art?