A major Frida Kahlo exhibition is coming to the Tate Modern next year

Tate’s 2026 programme includes 'Frida: The Making of an Icon', which will trace the professional and personal life of countercultural figurehead Frida Kahlo

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frida kahlo
Detail from Self Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird, 1940, Frida Kahlo
(Image credit: Tate)

Tate has announced its programme for 2026, and it's going to be a blockbuster year for art in London and beyond, with a particular focus on women artists. Arguably the highlight of the 2026 exhibition calendar will be a Frida Kahlo exhibition at Tate Modern, titled ‘Frida: The Making of an Icon’, which will open on 25 June 2026 and run until early January 2027.

The exhibition will explore Kahlo’s life and legacy through more than 130 works, including her iconic self-portraits, showcasing the Mexican artist's signature vibrant style.

Frida biting her necklace, 1933, by Lucienne Bloch

Frida Biting Her Necklace, 1933, by Lucienne Bloch (not in exhibition), from a 2018 photography show at Michael Hoppen Gallery, featuring portraits of Kahlo by other artists

(Image credit: press)

‘Frida: The Making of an Icon’ will also exhibit rarely seen documents, photographs and memorabilia from Kahlo's archives, shedding light on the different shades of her life and character: Kahlo the political activist, the intellectual, the wife. (A 2018 exhibition

Through artworks and objects, audiences will dive deep into the life and career of Kahlo, whose folk-style art explored themes of identity, postcolonialism, gender, class and race, often incorporating autobiographical and fantastical elements. Although she died in 1954, her work wasn’t adopted by the mainstream until the 1970s; Kahlo is now a recognised and celebrated figure in art history as well as the feminist and LGBTQ+ movements. The exhibition will also touch upon the diversity of communities who claim Kahlo as their own.

frida kahlo

Self Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird, 1940, Frida Kahlo

(Image credit: Nickolas Muray Collection of Mexican Art, 66.6 Harry Ransom Research Center, University of Texas, Austin)

‘Frida: The Making of an Icon’ will also bring together art from more than 80 of the artist’s contemporaries, as well as work by artists from later generations who were inspired by Kahlo, broadening the scope of the exhibition to consider the role of women artists in the 20th century.

Tate’s 2026 programme will also include a landmark Tracey Emin retrospective, which will include the Turner Prize-nominated installation, My Bed. There will also be stagings of Argentine artist Julio Le Parc and Cuban-American artist Ana Mendieta, as well as a photography exhibition, ‘Light and Magic: The Birth of Art Photography’.

tate.org.uk

Anna Solomon
Digital Writer

Anna Solomon is Wallpaper’s digital staff writer, working across all of Wallpaper.com’s core pillars. She has a special interest in interiors and curates the weekly spotlight series, The Inside Story. Before joining the team at the start of 2025, she was senior editor at Luxury London Magazine and Luxurylondon.co.uk, where she covered all things lifestyle.