In the world of art, the city of Houston, 2026 begins with great momentum and one of the first exhibitions to arrive will be about one of the most popular artists. The Houston Museum of Fine Arts (MFAH) presents “Frida: The Making of an Icon” (Frida: the creation of an icon).
It will be an exhibition that traces the posthumous transformation of Frida Kahlo, who went from being a relatively unknown painter to becoming a global brand. It is through more than 35 Kahlo paintings that capture the artist’s artistic trajectory.
The Mexican painter and her art are presented in the context of five successive generations of artists: painters, sculptors and photographers belonging to a wide variety of communities and artistic and social movements that were inspired by Kahlo’s paintings and personal history to claim her as their own.
Key contributions will be displayed, drawn from the MFAH’s ICAA (International Center for the Arts of the Americas / Centro Internacional para las Artes de las Américas) Documentary Project archives and the Frida Kahlo Museum in Mexico City.
Frida’s talent is also reflected in the painting titled “The Heart” from 1937, and we will see it in this exhibition. Photo courtesy of MFAH
This 1926 painting is a self-portrait of Frida in a velvet dress. It is one of the pieces that will be at the MFAH. Photo courtesy of MFAH
In this exhibition we will see the famous photograph by Nickolas Muray, captured in Coyoacán, Mexico, in 1939. Photo courtesy of MFAH
“Diego and I,” Frida’s work painted in 1949 and that the public will be able to see in Houston. Photo courtesy of MFAH
This intriguing painting titled “Moses,” created by the Mexican painter in 1945, will surely attract the attention of museum visitors. Photo courtesy of MFAH
The photographs and archival material, including clothing, jewelry and other personal objects of the artist, drawn from Kahlo’s personal collections and other sources, provide additional context to the works of art.
“Frida: The Making of an Icon” is organized around thematic axes that explore how different artists have responded, over five decades, to Kahlo’s work and have reinterpreted it as their own.
From the contemporaneous Surrealists of the 1930s to the communities of the Chicano movement of the 1970s, as well as feminist activism and the struggle for LGBTQ+ rights in Mexico and the United States during the 1980s and 1990s, as well as the recent generations that have foregrounded questions of identity.
A gallery in the exhibition will be dedicated to “Fridamanía,” in which more than 200 objects generated by the global and mass production of products related to Frida Kahlo will be exhibited.
“The exhibition reasserts Kahlo’s own identity and reaffirms her enduring relevance to contemporary art, as well as her activism over the last 70 years,” said Mari Carmen Ramírez, Wortham Curator of Latin American Art at MFAH.
The exhibition premieres in Houston and will be open to the public from January 19 to May 17, 2026, before moving to the Tate Modern in London.
In detail
What: Frida: The Making of an Icon
When: January 19 to May 17, 2026
Where: Houston Museum of Fine Arts (MFAH)
More information: www.mfah.org
