The distinctive style of this sculptor from Galicia is completely unmistakable. While still a student at the School of Arts and Crafts in Santiago de Compostela he joined the

 Fato onírico Galego 

agroup that came together at the Maestro Mateo Arts and Crafts School in Santiago de Compostela. With roots in Surrealism and Dada, its members, with a special mention for Francisco Leiro, used automatic drawing as part of their creative process.

group, when his work was still toying with elements from Surrealism and from . In the late 1980s, Leiro moved to New York and began to work for Marlborough Gallery.

It was around this time when his sculpture adopted a more overtly expressionist undertone, which he coupled with an interest in ancient figurative sculpture and the inclusion of abstract structures that give his work a timelessness and metaphoric resonance. Leiro weds the tragic and the humorous, reality and fiction, internationalism and localism, forging a unique vernacular of contrasts that he uses to convey the desired message.

Leiro has made frequent use of granite, perhaps the most Galician of all stones. When he chooses fine materials as his support —the stone and wood so present in his works— it connects him to his land of birth.

Furthermore, El misilito also speaks of the sculptor’s interest in mass and volume. It boasts great expressiveness as well as structural solidity and a very energetic finish. The piece also attests to the metamorphosis his human figures underwent in those days: halfway between the shell covering them and the anatomy that would gain increasing ground in his practice.

This figure, hugging itself upside down, transmits a certain irony. If we look at the title, the little missile, the character, somewhat redolent of a sea creature, could be trying to return to the earth it has come from. The image distorts perceived reality and induces us to imagine a fantastic story.