FOR THE LOVE OF FRIDA 2023 WALL CALENDAR (SQUARE)

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In Canberra, the National Photographic Portrait Prize 2023 will again be staged at the National Portrait Gallery (17 June – 1 October), while in Brisbane, artist Michael Zavros offers his own photo-real take on portraiture in his exhibition The Favourite at GOMA. Michael Zavros, ‘The Favourite’, survey exhibition at QAGOMA. Image: Supplied courtesy the artist. Irreverent … Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, wedding portrait, 21 August 1929. Photograph: Victor Reyes/BBC/Rogan Productions Family Calendar - At Grupo Erik we care about the environment and contribute using sustainable materials and FSC certified paper. The text appears in 2 languages: English and Spanish

Rolling out in nine cities in the U.S. and Canada, it’s a somewhat more robust experience than the Van Gogh show. And although the Kahlo show of video projections and music is just as colorful and sonically dynamic as the Van Gogh, it similarly bears elements that may seem at odds with the artist’s life and career. An art superstar, the astonishing career and dazzling legacy of Frida Kahlo has become the stuff of legend. It interestingly coincides with the return of The National: Australian Art Nowfor its fourth iteration. Presented across the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Carriageworks and the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, the exhibition opens across rolling dates, and offers a dialogue on making now. It has been curated by an all-female curatorium this time, free. Wrapping up the year on a high note will be Fairy Tales at GOMA, a high-voltage, multidisciplinary and at times immersive exhibition that explores how fairy tales from across the world have held our fascination for centuries through art and culture. Despite her relatively short life, Kahlo's legacy continues to resonate with people all over the world. Her art has been the subject of numerous exhibitions. In recent years, there has been a renewed interest in Kahlo's life and work, with new exhibitions and events celebrating her enduring influence.By the end, Kahlo’s work has taken a turn towards darkness, and we are confronted with the pain that drove her to create. “I had to paint it because I felt murdered by life,” she says.

Aldo worth a nod, is the exhibition 100 faces: the Harris, Rosenthal and MGA Collections(Monash University). Through the lens of over 50 international and Australian artists, 100 faces brings together three significant photographic collections to explore the portrait in its many forms, as well as what it means to build a collection of faces, both publicly and privately (4 March – 28 May, free). Up north, Cairns Art Gallery is going ‘troppo’ with an exhibition by the late Peter Kingston and Euan Macleod titled Travelling North (21 January – 5 March), celebrating the unique weather patterns, landscapes and people of the tropical zone. February Andy Warhol and Keith Haring. Image: Party Honouring Claes Oldenburg For Opening of His New Exhibit at the Guggenheim Museum by Ron Galella. Kahlo received a commission from the Mexican government for five portraits of important Mexican women in 1941, but she was unable to finish the project. She lost her beloved father that year and continued to suffer from chronic health problems. Despite her personal challenges, her work continued to grow in popularity and was included in numerous group shows around this time. The early years of her relationship with Rivera form the bulk of the opening episode. It reminded me of Modern Couples, an exhibition at the Barbican in London a few years ago, that featured the work of Kahlo and Rivera among many others, and examined how artistic couples managed their creativity. It was full of little insights into ego and collaboration and jealousy. By the end of this opener, he is the “great maestro” and she is the “little wife … always in the shadows”; the irony, of course, being that we know how this story ends, and history has put Rivera in the shadows, albeit brightly lit. A number of fantastic immersive Frida Kahlo experiences, held in cities such as London, Los Angeles, Chicago and Boston have sadly ended, but there are plenty of other Frida Kahlo exhibitions being held across the world.There have been two great accidents in my life. One was the trolley and the other was Diego. Diego was by far the worst. Kahlo's unique style is characterised by bold colours, intricate details, and a surreal quality that blurs the line between reality and imagination. Her art often features self-portraits that capture her physical and emotional struggles, as well as her Mexican heritage and political beliefs. In Sydney, Carriageworks will present the first major solo exhibition by artist Salote Tawale, drawing on her Indigenous Fijian and Anglo-Australian heritage to consider how memory relates to identity and place. With the exhibition space conceived as a ‘memory bank’, Tawale will bring together paintings, sculpture, installation and video to investigate the complex and, at times, unreliable nature of memories (11 October– 10 December, free). Salote Tawale, Carriageworks Clothing Store Artist Studios, 2022. Image: Jacquie Manning. One not to be missed in Queensland, is the exhibition Looking Out, Looking In at QAGOGA, (11 March – 6 August, free). It explores the genre of the self-portrait, a distinct form of portraiture. There was also less artwork to choose from, says Lighthouse creative consultant Richard Ouzounian. Kahlo made 143 paintings in her lifetime, in addition to drawings; Van Gogh painted more than 900. But ultimately, telling a story about Kahlo — “Her life. Her love. Her art,” as the marketing text goes — was a deliberate creative decision, Ouzounian says.

A highlight for March is the return of Melbourne Now at NGV Australia for its second edition. Celebrating new and ambitious local art and design across a range of contemporary disciplines, including fashion and jewellery, painting, sculpture, architecture, ceramics, video, performance, printmaking and publishing, it will include 200-plus Victoria-based artists, including 60 new commissions (24 March – 20 August, free).It might feel odd, given her disability,” says a representative of the show, Leisha Bereson, “but it also makes perfect sense. This space and the format is meant to be a reflective experience for the visitor, and it’s an extension of that.” But the show is as much about Kahlo’s joys and passion for life and art as it is about her pain, as seen through colorful butterflies, blooming flowers and self-portraits of the artist.

Kahlo’s health issues became nearly all-consuming in 1950. After being diagnosed with gangrene in her right foot, Kahlo spent nine months in the hospital and had several operations during this time. She continued to paint and support political causes despite having limited mobility. In 1953, part of Kahlo’s right leg was amputated to stop the spread of gangrene. There are some versions that say that Diego helped her. That…in the family is a taboo. Nobody talks about that. If your companion of all your life said, ‘I am tired, I really want to go, help me.’ Well maybe you try…”Artist Frida Kahlo was considered one of Mexico's greatest artists who began painting mostly self-portraits after she was severely injured in a bus accident. Kahlo later became politically active and married fellow communist artist Diego Rivera in 1929. She exhibited her paintings in Paris and Mexico before her death in 1954. Family, Education and Early Life The family home where Kahlo was born and grew up, later referred to as the Blue House or Casa Azul, was opened as a museum in 1958. Located in Coyoacán, Mexico City, the Museo Frida Kahlo houses artifacts from the artist along with important works including Viva la Vida (1954), Frida and Caesarean (1931) and Portrait of my father Wilhelm Kahlo (1952). Book on Frida Kahlo Kahlo’s life was the subject of a 2002 film entitled Frida, starring Salma Hayek as the artist and Alfred Molina as Rivera. Directed by Julie Taymor, the film was nominated for six Academy Awards and won for Best Makeup and Original Score. Frida Kahlo Museum