The new “Immersive Frida Kahlo Exhibit—The Life of an Icon” has opened in Dumbo, Brooklyn for all those who remain fascinated by the life and work of the Mexican artist who used her art to interpret her life.
Kahlo is today representative of an understanding of Mexican art that is rooted in Indigenous and Afrodescendant schemata. Traditional Mexican art only depicted the nation’s European/colonial inheritance, but the themes tackled by artists like Frida Kahlo took on the political aspects of a Mexico that lives, eats, and breathes in a world first occupied by Indigenous cultures and later strongly influenced by Africans.
This new immersive exhibit focuses on how her work is viewed and experienced—how the imagery of Frida has become as celebrated as her work. From the entrance, the show gives viewers information about Kahlo’s life and places it in the context of Mexico’s history. “Dualities are very present in her work,” a narrative in the exhibit explains: “where the sun shares space with the moon. A face can be half Frida, half Diego; and two Fridas, one with her heart intact and the other one with a broken heart, configure just one Frida, the genuine one. The hummingbird, which in Mexican tradition represents good luck in love, something Frida longed for so much, only responds to reality when painted dead.
“And fruit: watermelons, pomegranates, papayas… opened, fleshy and juicy, evidently refer to sexuality and fertility, imperfect but desirable, and in several stages of freshness and ripening, as if they were people, as if they were Frida herself.” As you walk through the show—seeing historical photographs and film, hearing the music, and seeing the colors and flowers and fabrics she used in her clothing—you are made to feel like you’re on a journey through the parts of the world that affected Frida Kahlo’s life.
Immersive Frida Kahlo Exhibit––The Life of an Icon, 259 Water Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201; //www.fridakahlonyc.com/