If you are planning a trip to London this summer, add one unmissable stop to your itinerary: Tate Modern's Frida: The Making of an Icon, the most anticipated art exhibition to hit the city this year. More than 35,000 tickets have already been sold before opening day, a record for Tate, and the show promises to be one of those rare cultural experiences that stays with you long after you leave.
Why Frida, why now
Frida Kahlo is one of those artists whose work defies time. More than seven decades after her death, her self-portraits still stop you cold. Painting from a place of raw physical suffering, she was severely injured in a bus crash at 18 and never fully recovered, Kahlo turned her own body and psyche into one of the most extraordinary bodies of work in modern art. The images are unforgettable: a shattered spine rendered as a crumbling classical column, disembodied arms floating free of their outfits, a surgical corset painted with a red hammer and sickle over a foetus in the womb. Nobody before or since has done quite what she did with a canvas and a mirror.
What you will find inside
The exhibition brings together over 30 of Kahlo's most significant works, introducing her many selves, the devoted wife, the political activist, the intellectual, the modern artist pushing at every boundary available to her. Alongside the paintings, visitors will encounter treasured garments, jewellery, photographs and personal memorabilia from her archives, offering an unusually intimate window into her life.
The show does not stop at Kahlo herself. More than 200 works by her contemporaries and by artists she has inspired across subsequent generations reveal the remarkable reach of her influence, from post-1970s body and performance artists to contemporary creators who continue to reimagine her story. The exhibition culminates in an exploration of what has come to be called Fridamania: the transformation of this deeply personal artist into a global cultural and commercial phenomenon, documented through over 200 objects bearing her image, style and persona.
London is going full Frida
The exhibition has spilled well beyond Tate's walls. A series of murals created by young artists inspired by Kahlo has appeared across the city. Reimaginings of her Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird (1940) can be spotted everywhere from the screens of Piccadilly Circus to the walls around Blackfriars station. Carnaby Street in Soho has been transformed with colourful garlands made from traditional Mexican papel picado, the intricate art of decorative paper cutting. And at the Tate Modern Restaurant, Michelin-starred chef Santiago Lastra of KOL has created a limited-edition menu exploring Kahlo's world through colour, flavour and storytelling. Making a full day of it has never been easier.
Frida: The Making of an Icon opens at Tate Modern, Bankside, London SE1 9TG, on 25 June 2026 and runs until 3 January 2027. Tickets are available at tate.org.uk and are selling fast, booking in advance is strongly recommended.
