Discover at Tate Modern

Three Times Tate Modern

Anyone visiting Tate Modern this autumn will find three of London's most talked-about temporary exhibitions there too. Frida Kahlo, Ana Mendieta, and Julio Le Parc share the galleries over the coming months.

Tate Modern is a sight in itself. The building on the Thames, directly opposite St Paul's Cathedral, was until 1981 an ordinary power station, designed by architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, who also has the red British telephone box to his name. Architect duo Herzog & de Meuron converted the site in 2000 into one of the largest museums for modern and contemporary art in the world, preserving the distinctive brick chimney and the immense Turbine Hall as its beating heart. The permanent collection, featuring work by Picasso, Matisse, and Yayoi Kusama among others, can still be visited for free.

Among the temporary exhibitions are three gems you shouldn't miss.

Frida: The Making of an Icon – Tate Modern

Everyone knows Frida Kahlo's face, but this exhibition looks beyond the famous unibrow. Alongside more than thirty works by Kahlo herself, including rarely shown self-portraits, Tate Modern displays cherished clothing, jewelry, photographs, and memorabilia that together uncover the artist's different "layers." Most of Kahlo's work is in private hands, right, Madonna? That is why Tate Modern expands the exhibition with more than two hundred pieces by artists who were in some way connected to her or inspired by her. These include work by her husband Diego Rivera, featuring both a striking nude drawing of his wife and a tender portrait of her, through to contemporary makers. The exhibition ends in a room full of "Fridamania": more than two hundred commercial objects, from T-shirts to Barbie dolls, showing how Kahlo grew into a global brand.

Practical info: until January 3, 2027, Tate Modern, tickets from £25. More info.

Ana Mendieta – Tate Modern

Also at Tate Modern is an in-depth exhibition on Ana Mendieta. This artist left Cuba as a child and channeled displacement, identity, and loss into performances in which she used her own body as material. More than 130 pieces can be admired, from her iconic Silueta series (imprints of her silhouette in earth, sand, and fire) to newly remastered films, early paintings, and later sculptures.

Practical info: until January 17, 2027, Tate Modern, tickets £18 (concession £17). More info.

Julio Le Parc: Light. Colour. Action – Tate Modern

The Argentine artist Julio Le Parc believed a work of art is only complete once a visitor comes into contact with it. This exhibition, featuring more than sixty works from a seventy-year career, shows why: light sculptures, mirror installations, and a genuine "playroom" full of interactive objects that visitors set in motion themselves. Le Parc died in late May 2026, just days before the opening, at the age of 97.

Practical info: until May 3, 2027, Tate Modern, tickets from £15. More info.

Image: Frida: The Making of an Icon installation view. Photo © Tate (Larina Annora Fernandes)

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