“I paint myself because I am so often alone and because I am the subject I know best.”

T his quote will soon greet visitors as they enter a darkened Houston gallery filled not with oil paintings, but with relics of a life lived in public and in pain. Photographs, medical corsets, handwritten letters, cosmetics and magazine covers. This is not just an art exhibit. This is “ Frida: The Making of an Icon,” which will show at the Museum of Fine Arts , Houston (MFAH) starting January 19 and running through May 17, 2026.

This is one of the more anticipated art mega events coming to Houston in recent memory. A deep dive into how one woman turned her pain into poetry and, eventually, a global phenomenon.

Conceptualized and organized by Mari Carmen Ramírez, the Wortham Curator of Latin Amer

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