Maria Leontina’s work became recognized for its lyricism, its keen chromatic sensibility and the geometrization of form. Her initially figurative paintings gradually became more geometric until she turned completely to abstraction in the 1950s. On several occasions, her work was described as “sensitive geometry”, and at times it was closely connected with poetry and religiosity. In one of her last series, entitled Painting, the artist interpreted the thoughts of great mystics and poets.   

Leontina’s career started in the early 1940s, when she attended the studios of painters linked to the São Paulo school, particularly Waldemar da Costa. Her work soon emerged on the national art scene. In 1951, Leontina was invited by psychiatrist and art critic Osório César to direct the fine arts department at the Juqueri Psychiatric Hospital. In the same year, she organized an exhibition of the interns at MAM São Paulo. In 1952, she traveled to Europe to take part in the Salon de Mai in Paris, and she exhibited a series of still lifes as part of the Brazilian representation at the 26th Venice Biennale. In the 1960s, the artist created a tile panel for the Copan Building and stained-glass windows for the Santíssima Trindade Brazilian Episcopal Church, both in São Paulo. 

Maria Leontina took part in the Bienal de São Paulo on several occasions (1951, 1955, 1957, 1959, 1961, 1963, 1967, 1979 and 1989). She also received the acquisition prize in the 1st, 3rd and 7th editions. Other outstanding group exhibitions were the two editions of the Panorama da Arte Brasileira, at MAM São Paulo (1969 and 1970); in both she received the Acquisition Prize, the first being for the Palácio dos Bandeirantes, the seat of the São Paulo government, and the second for the Pinacoteca de São Paulo. In 1960, Leontina won the National Guggenheim Award from the Guggenheim Foundation, New York, USA.  

In addition to participating in several group and solo exhibitions during her career, Maria Leontina had an extensive retrospective at MAM São Paulo (1994). More recently, her work was revisited in the retrospective Maria Leontina: da forma ao todo, at the Pinacoteca de São Paulo, Brazil (2023). Her work is part of important institutional collections, including: Pinacoteca de São Paulo, Brazil; MAM São Paulo, Brazil; Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Universidade de São Paulo – MAC USP, Brazil; MASP, Brazil; and MAM Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.