Leonora Carrington British-Mexican, 1917-2011

Carrington’s practice is rooted in a private world of mythology, alchemy, folklore, dreams and transformation, where human, animal and supernatural figures coexist without clear boundaries. Working across painting, drawing, sculpture, tapestry and writing, she developed an intensely personal visual language informed by Celtic mythology, occult traditions, medieval imagery and the cultures she encountered after settling in Mexico. Her paintings resist straightforward interpretation, unfolding instead as strange, theatrical worlds populated by hybrid creatures, ritualistic gatherings and powerful female figures. Although closely associated with Surrealism, Carrington forged a language distinctly her own, constructing a universe in which female experience, imagination and agency occupy the centre.

Leonora Carrington emerged within the European Surrealist movement in the late 1930s before establishing her life and career in Mexico City in the 1940s. Her work was shown internationally during her lifetime, including important Surrealist exhibitions and presentations in New York, and she received major retrospective recognition across Mexico, the United States and Europe. Since her death, Carrington’s influence has expanded considerably as museums and curators have reassessed the role of women within Surrealism. In 2022, the 59th Venice Biennale took its title, The Milk of Dreams, from Carrington’s book and used her imaginative world of metamorphosis as a central point of departure. Gillian Jason Gallery works with Carrington’s estate and Rosso Granada, continuing a direct engagement with her legacy and introducing her work to new generations of collectors and audiences. In 2025, the gallery presented ‘After Leonora: Echoes of Surrealism,’ bringing together a selection of Carrington’s late bronzes and editioned lithographs with works by contemporary women artists whose practices carry echoes of Surrealism. Today she is recognised as one of the most singular and influential artists associated with twentieth-century Surrealism.