Leena McCall is a British figurative painter whose work centres women’s bodies, labour, and visibility. Working primarily through portraiture and the figure, she uses classical painting techniques to confront contemporary discomfort around female presence, autonomy, and refusal.
Her work first gained international attention through debates around censorship and the regulation of women’s bodies, and has since been widely exhibited and discussed in international media. McCall’s paintings position women as subjects rather than symbols, resisting visual traditions that render the female body either consumable or invisible.
Alongside this, her practice engages with themes of motherhood, interruption, ageing, and unpaid labour — experiences that profoundly shape women’s lives while remaining culturally undervalued. Painting becomes a means of making this labour visible: slow, embodied, and resistant to erasure.
McCall’s work is held in the permanent collection of Museu de l’Art Prohibit, Barcelona. She lives and works in the UK and accepts a limited number of commissions.
Selected Exhibitions
2024 Sweet Art Salon Exhibition — London
2023 Museu de l’Art Prohibit — Ms Ruby May, standing, permanent collection of censored art, Barcelona
2022 RetRespect: 10 Years of SweetArt — London
2019 Contain — Offside Gallery, University for the Creative Arts, Farnham
2019 V.23 (RICH TEA) — The Old Biscuit Factory, London
2016 Joie de Vivre Pop-up Gallery — Hampton Court
2014 Ms Ruby May, standing — Leyden Gallery, London
2014 SWA 153rd Annual Exhibition — Mall Galleries, London
2013 Art Erotica Exhibition - The Gallery, Cork Street, London
2011 Boudoir Tales — Sh! Women’s Erotic Emporium, London
2009 Frauenmuseum Bonn — 19. Kunstmesse
2008 Flesh, Drawings by Leena McCall — Hepsibah Gallery, London
Public Collections
Museu de l’Art Prohibit, Barcelona — Permanent Collection
Awards
2026 Winner - Square Feet Gallery Exhibition
2026 Finalist - Women in Art Prize
2026 Longlist - Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize
2026 Longlist - Jacksons Art Prize
2025 Finalist - Raw Umber Studios Image Prize
2012 Runner-up Prize — Art Erotica Exhibition, Cork Street, London
2012 Visitor’s Choice Prize — Art Erotica Exhibition, Cork Street, London
2009 Valentine Rothe Preis, 3rd Prize — Frauenmuseum Bonn