“Frida: The Making of an Icon” Debuts in January 2026 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Curated by Mari Carmen Ramírez and organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, this ambitious exhibition traces Frida Kahlo’s posthumous transformation from a relatively unknown painter to global brand.   

HOUSTON—June 4, 2025–In January 2026, the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston will debut Frida: The Making of an Icon. Conceived and organized by MFAH curator Mari Carmen Ramírez, the exhibition will trace Frida Kahlo’s posthumous transformation from a relatively unknown painter to global brand. Featuring more than 30 paintings by Kahlo that capture the arc of the painter’s artistic legacy, Frida: The Making of an Icon presents Kahlo and her art within the context of 120 works by five successive generations of artists: painters, sculptors, and photographers from an array of artistic and social communities and movements, who mined Kahlo’s paintings and personal history to claim her as their own. Frida: The Making of an Icon travels to the Tate Modern, London, after its premiere in Houston.

Key contributions from the archives of the Documents Project of the ICAA (International Center for the Arts of the Americas) at the MFAH and Museo Frida Kahlo in Mexico City will be featured. Photographs and archival material, including the artist’s clothing, jewelry, and other personal items culled from Kahlo’s personal collections and other sources, provide additional context for the artworks. 

Frida: The Making of an Icon will be organized along themes that address how artists across five decades have responded to Kahlo’s work and appropriated it: from Kahlo’s Surrealist contemporaries of the 1930s to the communities within the Chicana/o movement of the 1970s, Mexico’s and the U.S. feminist and gay-rights activism of the 1980s and 1990s, and the identity-focused generations of more recent decades. A gallery of the exhibition will be devoted to “Fridamania,” displaying more than 200 objects generated by the global, mass-market production of Frida Kahlo merchandise. 

Commented Gary Tinterow, director and Margaret Alkek Williams chair of the MFAH, “This Museum has been at the forefront of Latin American art since the founding in 2001 of the International Center for the Arts of the Americas. While there have been numerous Frida Kahlo exhibitions around the world since the 1970s, Mari Carmen Ramírez has leveraged the unparalleled resources of our ICAA to document and assemble a fascinating group of objects that attest to the enduring appeal of Kahlo’s art and life.” 

“Frida: The Making of an Icon attempts to separate Frida Kahlo the artist from Frida Kahlo the phenomenon,” commented Mari Carmen Ramírez, Wortham Curator of Latin American Art at the MFAH and founding director of the Museum’s International Center for the Arts of the Americas (ICAA). “The exhibition reveals how the different facets of Kahlo’s complex persona(lity), which she so carefully crafted and projected, were adapted again and again over her decades-long transformation into an icon. As a result, her image became subsumed within the desires, fears, and hopes of artists and activists who transformed it into innovative proposals that transcend their source of inspiration while commenting on pressing issues of their place and time. In exploring that process, the exhibition re-establishes Kahlo’s own identity, and asserts her persistent relevance to contemporary art as well as activism over the past 70 years.”

Organization and Funding 
Frida: The Making of an Icon is organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The exhibition debuts in Houston and will be on view from January 18 to May 17, 2026, followed by Tate Modern in London, June 25, 2026, to January 3, 2027.

Lead Global Supporter:

“The work and influence of Frida Kahlo is recognized and appreciated by artists, patrons and consumers of art and culture around the world. What an incredible pleasure to support the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, in bringing the vibrancy of her work and legacy to life. The ability of this exhibition to resonate with audiences across our region speaks to the heart of why Bank of America seeks to champion arts and culture—to enrich our lives and inspire deeper connections across our communities,” said Hong Ogle, president, Bank of America Houston. 

Generous support is provided by:
Linnet Deily
Nancy Pollock Guinee
The Radoff Family
Silvia Salle and Peter T. Wood

Mari Carmen Ramírez, MFAH Wortham Curator of Latin American Art and Director, International Center for the Arts of the Americas, conceptualized the exhibition and is the organizing curator. Dr. James Oles, Mexico-based independent curator, author, and professor at Wellesley College, serves as consulting curator. Accompanying the exhibition is a significant catalogue published by the MFAH and Yale University Press, with contributions from across a range of social, historical, and art-historical perspectives, as well as historical documents.

About the International Center for the Arts of the Americas at the MFAH
The International Center for the Arts of the Americas (ICAA) is the research institute of the Latin American art department at the MFAH. The Center’s mission is to pioneer research on the diverse artistic production of Latin American and Latinx artists from Mexico, Central and South America, the Caribbean, and the United States; organize research-based exhibitions; educate audiences about the field; and open new avenues of intercultural exchange and dialogue. Through this work, the ICAA seeks to bring about a long-term transformation in the appreciation and understanding of Latin American and Latinx visual arts. The ICAA is serving as the main research division and information repository for Frida: The Making of an Icon. Additionally, it will provide free public access to exhibition research, documents, and other information through the renowned ICAA Documents Project Digital Archive. Launched in 2012, this ongoing initiative has identified, retrieved, and made available thousands of primary texts by notable Latin American and Latinx artists, critics, and curators. Established in 2001, the ICAA is headed by Dr. Mari Carmen Ramírez, MFAH Wortham Curator of Latin American Art and ICAA director, and Dr. Arden Decker, associate director, ICAA.

About the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston 
Spanning 14 acres in the heart of Houston’s Museum District, the main campus comprises the Audrey Jones Beck Building, the Caroline Wiess Law Building, the Lillie and Hugh Roy Cullen Sculpture Garden and the Nancy and Rich Kinder Building. Nearby, two house museums—Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens, and Rienzi—present collections of American and European decorative arts. The MFAH is also home to the Glassell School of Art, with its Core Residency Program and Junior and Studio schools; and the International Center for the Arts of the Americas (ICAA), a leading research institute for 20th-century Latin American and Latino art. www.mfah.org

Media Contact
Melanie Fahey, Senior Publicist
mfahey@mfah.org | 713.398.1136   

Images (left to right): Frida Kahlo, Diego and I, 1949, oil on canvas, Collection of Eduardo F. Costantini. © 2025 Banco de Mexico Diego Rivera & Frida Kahlo Museum Trust, Mexico, D.F./ Artists Rights Society, New York. Rupert Garcia, Frida Kahlo (September), from Galeria de la Raza 1975 Calendario, 1975, screenprint on paper, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, De Young Museum, museum purchase, Achenbach Foundation for Graphic Arts Endowment. © Rupert García, courtesy Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco. Image © Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. Yasumasa Morimura, An Inner Dialogue with Frida Kahlo (Hand-Shaped Earring), color photograph on canvas, Minneapolis Institute of Art, gift of funds from Beverly Grossman, 2010.25. © Yasumasa Morimura, courtesy of the artist and Luhring Augustine, New York. Nickolas Muray’s Frida on a White Bench, New York, surrounded by merchandise created using the photo as inspiration. Artwork © Nickolas Muray Archive; composite © The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston.