Arts & Entertainment
Another side of a legend
Bi painter Kahlo’s photos displayed in new exhibit
‘Frida Kahlo: Her Photos’
Artisphere
1101 Wilson Blvd.
Arlington, VA
Feb. 23-March 25
(Images courtesy Frida Kahlo Museum via Artisphere)
Fans of Frida Kahlo and students of photography in the D.C. area have a rare opportunity to see a collection of photographs that document and explore the fascinating life and rich legacy of this influential queer artist.
From Feb. 23 through March 25, Artisphere will be the only venue in the United States to show “Frida Kahlo: Her Photos,” an exhibition of personal photographs that have been hidden from public view since Kahlo’s death in 1954.
The extraordinary work of bisexual Mexican artist Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) is celebrated by a diverse group of dedicated fans. Best known for a series of stunning self-portraits that use costume and color to great effect, Kahlo is now seen as an important member of the surrealist movement. Artist André Breton hailed her work as a “ribbon around a bomb” and it’s admired in Mexico as an exploration of national and indigenous traditions. Feminists celebrate her painting as an uncompromising depiction of female bodies and lives and a powerful testament to her incredible strength in facing a life of chronic pain.
Writing in the online encyclopedia glbtq, queer cultural critic Tamsin Wilton also underscores the importance of Kahlo as a queer artist. During her long tempestuous marriage to famous activist and artist Diego Rivera, Kahlo had several affairs with both men and women. More artistically significant, however, is her bold use of costume to challenge traditional notions of female sexuality. Just as her depictions of ornate Mexican costumes were used to celebrate indigenous Amerindian culture, Wilton writes that Kahlo was often pictured in male attire to “make a statement about her own independence from feminine norms. She was a masterly and magical exponent of cross-dressing, deliberately using male ‘drag’ to project power and independence.”
During her life, Kahlo created and collected more than 2,500 photographs from her international travels and from visitors to the house that she and Rivera shared. After Rivera’s death, in accordance with his will, this collection of snapshots was sealed and put in storage. In 2007, on the 50th anniversary of Rivera’s death, the collection was opened and cataloged by Mexican photographer and curator Pablo Ortiz Monasterio.
Monasterio has assembled 259 of these photographs into “Frida Kahlo: Her Photos,” which opens next week in Arlington. He has arranged the photographs into six thematic areas that align with the periods in Kahlo’s life. Each area was displayed in a separate room of the Blue House, a display that is recreated at Artisphere.
The first room, called Origins, documents the profound influence that Kahlo’s family had on her work. Her father Guillermo Kahlo, a German émigré, was a portrait photographer. He taught Frida the art of photography and trained her in the darkroom. Her mother, Matilde Calderón y Gonzalez, was a Roman Catholic with mixed Spanish and Amerindian heritage. The second room, The Blue House, explores Casa Azul, the Kahlo family home in Coyoacán Mexico, a sister city of Arlington, Va., where Frida was born, lived most of her life and died.
The third room, The Broken Body, displays photographs examining a central theme in Kahlo’s life and work, her serious physical injuries and her struggles with intense chronic pain. Kahlo contracted polio at age 6. As a result, her right leg was significantly thinner than her left. She often disguised this by wearing long skirts. In 1925, while she was a student in medical school, Kahlo was in a serious bus accident that left her with significant injuries, including multiple broken bones and internal injuries. These injuries made it impossible for her to bear children, a fact that haunted her for life. Over the course of 29 years, Kahlo endured 35 operations and suffered three miscarriages. She was frequently in intense pain and had to be bedridden or confined to a hospital for long periods.
Kahlo began her career as an artist when she was in a body cast after her accident. Her mother designed a special easel for her and her father lent her paint and brushes. In addition to themes of national and sexual identity, her work often drew on images of bodily pain and expressed feelings of pain.
The fourth room of the exhibition is called Love and includes images of Kahlo’s family and friends, including her husband Diego and two of her male lovers. (The exhibition does not include any pictures of her known female lovers.) Cynthia Connelly, Artisphere’s Visual Arts Curator, is amazed by the incredible relationships Kahlo developed during her life.
“When you walk through this room — and the entire exhibition — you get a sense of a really strong woman who surrounded herself with creative and challenging people,” Connelly says. “She lived a wonderful life and opened herself up to all kinds of ideas and experiences. She and Diego lived through so much history, but they were also creating history.”
The fifth room, Photography, looks at the connection between Kahlo’s painting and her snapshot collection. Curator Ortiz traces several images, including a black cat and a dead baby, from Kahlo’s canvases back to their photographic origins. The sixth room, Diego’s Eyes, presents a series of photographs that directly and indirectly influenced Rivera’s huge political murals.
Connolly says those visiting the exhibition should be sure to read the photos’ descriptions, which contain a bounty of back story.
Each of the pictures is displayed with detailed information on the subject and artist (where they are known), date and media. In addition, Kahlo has left handwritten notes on the back of many of the snapshots, and in one case even left a lipstick print over an image of her husband Diego. Connolly also points out that the exhibit is a little like a mystery. “Each of the photographs fills in a little bit of her story,” she says, “but many of them bring up further questions and we can’t answer all of them for you. Pay attention to the details.”
These pictures also document an important moment in art history — the emergence of photography as a public art form. “In a time where almost everyone has a camera phone, we take photographs for granted,” Connolly says. “This was a time when photography was just coming into mass consumption. Snapshots were becoming less formal. Think about the kind of cameras being used and who processed the film.”
Given her skills in the darkroom, Kahlo may have developed many of them herself, though the photos shown at Artisphere are copies. Under the terms of Rivera’s will, the artifacts from Casa Azul are not allowed to leave Mexico. The local exhibition has been arranged in the same layout used by Monasterio in the original exhibition.
In addition to the historic photographs, the celebration of Frida Kahlo at Artisphere includes a variety of related events. There are two film series, one on women filmmakers (including Julie Taymor’s biopic “Frida” with Selma Hayek as the famous artist) and one featuring Robert Rodriguez; performances by flamenco artists, female salsa artists and the Mexican Institute of Sound; and hands-on workshops on surrealism.
Artisphere has produced this exhibition in collaboration with the Frida Kahlo Museum (Coyoacán, Mexico), Museo Diego Rivera Anahuacalli (Coyoacán, Mexico), the Embassy of Mexico, the Mexican Cultural Institute and Arlington County, with additional support from the Rosslyn Business Improvement District. This international collaboration was initially facilitated by the Arlington Sister City Association.
(Washington Blade photos by Michael Key)
It’s been a year filled with drama and music, re-imaginings and new works. There was a lot on offer in 2025, and much to enjoy. Here are 10 now-closed productions that come to mind.
On Valentine’s Day at Folger Theatre on Capitol Hill, out actor Holly Twyford served as narrator for “The Love Birds” a Folger Consort work that melds medieval music with a world-premiere composition by acclaimed composer Juri Seo and readings from Geoffrey Chaucer’s “A Parlement of Foules”
Standing behind a podium, Twyford beautifully read Chaucer’s words (translated from Middle English and backed by projected slides in the original language), alternating with music played on old and new instruments.
While Mosaic Theater’s “A Case for the Existence of God,” closed in mid-December, it’s proving a production not soon forgotten. Precisely staged by Danilo Gambini, and impressively acted by Lee Orsorio and Jaysen Wright, the soul-searching two hander by out playwright Samuel D. Hunter, tells the story of two men who form an unlikely friendship based on single-fatherhood, a specific sadness, and hope.
The action unfolds in a small office in southern Idaho, where the pair discuss the perplexing terms of a mortgage loan while delving deep into their lives and backgrounds. Nothing is left off the table.
Shakespeare Theatre Company’s spring production of “Uncle Vanya” gave audiences something both fresh yet enduring. Staged by STC’s artistic director Simon Godwin, the production put an impeccably pleasing twist on Russian playwright Anton Chekhov’s classic. It ranks among the very best area productions of the year.
Featuring a topnotch cast led by Hugh Bonneville (TV’s “Downton Abbey”) in the title role, the play was set on an unfinished stage cluttered with costume racks and assorted props, all assembled by crew uniformed in black and actors in street clothes. Throughout the drama tinged with comedy, the actors continued to assist with ever increasingly period set changes accompanied by an underscore of melancholic cello strings. It was innovative and wonderful.
GALA Hispanic Theatre’s production of Manuel Puig’s “Kiss of the Spider Woman” was an intimate and affecting piece of theater. Staged by José Luis Arellano, it starred out actors Rodrigo Pedreira and Martín Ruiz as two very different men whose paths cross as convicts in an Argentine prison.
Arena Stage scored with a re-imagined and updated take on the widely liked musical “Damn Yankees.” Directed by Sergio Trujillo, the Broadway bound production has been “gently re-tooled for its first major revival in the 21st century,” moving the action from the struggling Washington Senators baseball team to the turn-of-the-century Yankees lineup. Ana Villafañe’s charmingly seductive Lola and a chorus of fit ball players made for a good time.
Also at Arena, out playwright Reggie D. White’s new work “Fremont Ave.” was very well received. A semi-autobiographical glimpse into home and the many definitions of that idea specifically relating to three generations of Black men, the work boasts a third act with a deeply queer storyline to boot.
Before his smash hit “Hamilton” transformed Broadway, Lin-Manuel Miranda wrote “In the Heights,” a seminal musical set against the vicissitudes of an upper Manhattan bodega. Infused with hip-hop, rap, and pop ballads, the romance/dramedy takes place over a lively few days in the vibrant, close-knit Latin neighborhood, Washington Heights.
Signature Theatre’s exciting take on “In the Heights” featured a talented cast including out actor Ángel Lozado as the bodega owner who figures prominently in the barrio and the action.
Studio Theatre’s recent production of lesbian playwright Paula Vogel’s newest work “The Mother Play,” a drama with humor, is about a well put together alcoholic mother and her two gay children living under difficult circumstances in the less glitzy parts of suburban Maryland. With nuanced performances and smart direction, the production was terrific.
Keegan Theatre surpassed expectations with its production of “Lizzie” a punk rock opera about Miss Borden, the fabled axe wielding title character. Performed by a super all-female cast, they belted a score that hits hard on subjects like money, queerness, and strained (to say the least) family relationships.
Round House Theatre impressed autumn audiences with “The Inheritance,” a two-part drama sensitively staged by out director Tom Story and acted by a mostly queer cast that included young actor Jordi Bertrán Ramírez in a breakout performance.
Penned by out playwright Matthew López, the epic work inspired by E.M. Forster’s novel “Howards End,” explores themes of love, legacy, and the AIDS crisis through the lives of three generations of gay men in New York City.
Prior to opening, Story commented that with the production’s predominately queer cast you get actors who “really understand the situation, the humor, and the struggle. It works well.” And he was right.
This past year, you’ve often had to make do.
Saving money here, resources there, being inventive and innovative. It’s a talent you’ve honed, but isn’t it time to have the best? Yep, so grab these Ten Best of 2025 books for your new year pleasures.
Nonfiction
Health care is on everyone’s mind now, and “A Living: Working-Class Americans Talk to Their Doctor” by Michael D. Stein, M.D. (Melville House, $26.99) lets you peek into health care from the point of view of a doctor who treats “front-line workers” and those who experience poverty and homelessness. It’s shocking, an eye-opening book, a skinny, quick-to-read one that needs to be read now.
If you’ve been doing eldercare or caring for any loved one, then “How to Lose Your Mother: A Daughter’s Memoir” by Molly Jong-Fast (Viking, $28) needs to be in your plans for the coming year. It’s a memoir, but also a biography of Jong-Fast’s mother, Erica Jong, and the story of love, illness, and living through the chaos of serious disease with humor and grace. You’ll like this book especially if you were a fan of the author’s late mother.
Another memoir you can’t miss this year is “Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea: A Veteran’s Memoir” by Khadijah Queen (Legacy Lit, $30.00). It’s the story of one woman’s determination to get out of poverty and get an education, and to keep her head above water while she goes below water by joining the U.S. Navy. This is a story that will keep you glued to your seat, all the way through.
Self-improvement is something you might think about tackling in the new year, and “Replaceable You: Adventures in Human Anatomy” by Mary Roach (W.W. Norton & Company, $28.99) is a lighthearted – yet real and informative – look at the things inside and outside your body that can be replaced or changed. New nose job? Transplant, new dental work? Learn how you can become the Bionic Person in real life, and laugh while you’re doing it.
The science lover inside you will want to read “The Grave Robber: The Biggest Stolen Artifacts Case in FBI History and the Bureau’s Quest to Set Things Right” by Tim Carpenter (Harper Horizon, $29.99). A history lover will also want it, as will anyone with a craving for true crime, memoir, FBI procedural books, and travel books. It’s the story of a man who spent his life stealing objects from graves around the world, and an FBI agent’s obsession with securing the objects and returning them. It’s a fascinating read, with just a little bit of gruesome thrown in for fun.
Fiction
Speaking of a little bit of scariness, “Don’t Forget Me, Little Bessie” by James Lee Burke (Atlantic Monthly Press, $28) is the story of a girl named Bessie and her involvement with a cloven-hooved being who dogs her all her life. Set in still-wild south Texas, it’s a little bit western, part paranormal, and completely full of enjoyment.
“Evensong” by Stewart O’Nan (Atlantic Monthly Press, $28) is a layered novel of women’s friendships as they age together and support one another. The characters are warm and funny, there are a few times when your heart will sit in your throat, and you won’t be sorry you read it. It’s just plain irresistible.
If you need a dark tale for what’s left of a dark winter season, then “One of Us” by Dan Chaon (Henry Holt, $28), it it. It’s the story of twins who become orphaned when their Mama dies, ending up with a man who owns a traveling freak show, and who promises to care for them. But they can’t ever forget that a nefarious con man is looking for them; those kids can talk to one another without saying a word, and he’s going to make lots of money off them. This is a sharp, clever novel that fans of the “circus” genre shouldn’t miss.
“When the Harvest Comes” by Denne Michele Norris (Random House, $28) is a wonderful romance, a boy-meets-boy with a little spice and a lot of strife. Davis loves Everett but as their wedding day draws near, doubts begin to creep in. There’s homophobia on both sides of their families, and no small amount of racism. Beware that there’s some light explicitness in this book, but if you love a good love story, you’ll love this.
Another layered tale you’ll enjoy is “The Elements” by John Boyne (Henry Holt, $29.99), a twisty bunch of short stories that connect in a series of arcs that begin on an island near Dublin. It’s about love, death, revenge, and horror, a little like The Twilight Zone, but without the paranormal. You won’t want to put down, so be warned.
If you need more ideas, head to your local library or bookstore and ask the staff there for their favorite reads of 2025. They’ll fill your book bag and your new year with goodness.
Season’s readings!
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