The major 2015 exhibition at the New York Botanical Garden will be Frida Kahlo’s Garden, focusing on the iconic artist’s engagement with nature in her native country of Mexico. Opening on May 16, 2015, and remaining on view through November 1, 2015, the exhibition will be the first solo presentation of Kahlo’s work in New York City in more than 25 years, and the first exhibition to focus exclusively on Kahlo’s intense interest in the botanical world.

Visitors to the Enid A. Haupt Conservatory will walk through a stunning flower show re-imagining Kahlo’s studio and garden at Casa Azul (“Blue House”) in Coyoacán, Mexico City. Curated by distinguished art historian and specialist in Mexican art Adriana Zavala, Ph.D., the multifaceted exhibition will include a rare display of more than a dozen original Kahlo paintings and drawings on view in the LuEsther T. Mertz Library’s Rondina and LoFaro Gallery at the Garden. Accompanying events invite visitors to learn about Kahlo’s Mexico in a new way through poetry, lectures, themed events, tours, a Mexican food market, and an iPhone app.

The Garden at Casa Azul

The landmark Enid A. Haupt Conservatory at The New York Botanical Garden will come alive with the colors and textures of Frida Kahlo’s home country of Mexico during the 2015 exhibition. Visitors entering the exhibition will view a re-imagined version of Kahlo’s garden at Casa Azul, the artist’s childhood home outside of Mexico City where she resided in her later years, transforming it with traditional Mexican folk-art objects, colonial-era art, religious ex-voto paintings, and native Mexican plants. Passing through the blue courtyard walls, visitors will stroll along lava rock paths lined with flowers, showcasing a variety of plants native to Mexico. A scale version of the pyramid at Casa Azul—originally created to display pre-Columbian art collected by Kahlo’s husband, famed muralist Diego Rivera—will showcase Mexican terra-cotta pots filled with plants found in her garden.

Kahlo’s Works on View

The LuEsther T. Mertz Library’s Rondina and LoFaro Gallery at the Garden will exhibit more than a dozen of Kahlo’s paintings and works on paper—many borrowed from private collections—highlighting the artist’s use of botanical imagery in her work. This never-before-seen grouping of artworks will include Self-Portrait with Thorn Necklace and Hummingbird (1940); Flower of Life (1944); Still Life with Parrot and Flag (1951); and Self-Portrait Inside a Sunflower (1954).

Programming Throughout the Garden

Programs will include weekend music and dance performances from folk to mariachi to contemporary. “Frida al Fresco” evenings during the summer will feature live music, cocktails, and Mexican-inspired dinner menus. Visitors will be invited to stroll through booths and sample food in the Conservatory marketplace, a version of the Coyoacán market. A self-guided Mexican Plant Tour will showcase the more than 75 plants native to Mexico and located in the various collections throughout the Garden’s 250 acres. Developed in partnership with the Poetry Society for America, a poetry walk will highlight the work of three important 20th-century Mexican poets—Pita Amor (1918–2000), Salvador Novo (1904–1974), Octavio Paz (1914–1998), and Carlos Pellicer (1897–1977).

Events will include a day-long symposium entitled Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera—Mexican Art in the 20th Century; a Mexican film festival; and food and culture festivals.

Visit nybg.org for more information.