In conjunction with Frida: The Making of an Icon, curator and art historian Luis Vargas Santiago leads a conversation with textile conservator Renato Camarillo Duque and artists Rosalie Favell, Camila Fontenele de Miranda, and Francisco Casas Silva. They discuss Frida Kahlo’s use of wardrobe and accessories to construct a persona, and they also talk about Kahlo’s influence on their own artistic practices.

Language interpretation services are provided for simultaneous translation through headset devices. 

About the Speakers
Luis Vargas Santiago is a curator and professor at the Institute of Aesthetic Research at the National Autonomous University of Mexico and Beinecke Fellow at the Clark Art Institute. He received his PhD from the University of Texas at Austin and has been widely published. His work discusses the intersection of race, gender, and politics in the art of the Americas and has been supported by the Smithsonian Institution and the Getty Foundation, among others. He is also the co-founder of the arts and culture firm AURA.

Renato Camarillo Duque is a textile researcher, conservator, and graduate of the National Institute of Anthropology and History. He has collaborated on exhibitions including Appearances Can Be Deceiving: The Dresses of Frida Kahlo at the Frida Kahlo Museum and Cristóbal Balenciaga at the Museum of Modern Art – INBAL in Mexico City; and Guillermo del Toro: En casa con mis monstruos at the Museum of the Arts, University of Guadalajara. He is currently undertaking a professional residency at the Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum in Madrid. 

Rosalie Favell, based in Ottawa, draws inspiration from her family history and Métis (Cree/English) heritage to present a complex self-portrait of her experiences as a contemporary Aboriginal woman. Her work, which explores the relation of photography to issues of identity, has appeared in exhibitions around the world. Among the institutions that have acquired her art are the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa, North American Native Museum in Zurich, and Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC.

Camila Fontenele de Miranda is a cultural worker, freelance photographer, visual artist, and researcher. She was an assistant curator for the third Frestas—Triennial of the Arts: The River Is a Serpent. She is co-curator of the 31st edition of the Youth Art Exhibition (MAJ) at Sesc Ribeirão Preto. Her research focuses on rest through drawing and writing. Her main interests are studies of the fat body, speculative fabulation, interspecies relations, and oceanic methodologies.

Francisco Casas Silva is a writer and visual artist who has authored books including Sodoma Mía; Yo, yegua; Romance de la Inmaculada Llanura; and Romance del Arcano sin Nombre. In 1987, in collaboration with writer Pedro Lemebel, he co-founded the art collective Yeguas del Apocalipsis (Mares of the Apocalypse), creating a body of work primarily focused on performance art. Their joint artistic endeavors encompassed cross-dressing, photography, video, and installations as potent mediums of expression.