museo casa kahlo opens in Mexico City
Mexico City welcomes Museo Casa Kahlo, a new museum located in Casa Roha, the historic home of Frida’s sister Cristina Kahlo, transformed into a museum by architect Mariana Doet Zepeda Orozco, with experience and exhibition design by Rockwell Group and graphic design by Pentagram.
Dedicated to exploring the private life, family relationships, and early inspirations of Frida Kahlo, the venue occupies the same neighborhood where the artist and her family lived for over a century. Far from the public eye of Frida’s more famous blue house, Casa Azul, this intimate residence offers a glimpse into the domestic world that shaped her life and work.
all images by Rafael Gamo for Rockwell Group, unless stated otherwise
an Intimate Journey Through the artist’s Private World
The museum experience, designed by the New York-, Los Angeles- and Madrid-based teams of Rockwell Group, is deliberately personal and reflective. Visitors move through preserved domestic spaces that include a kitchen containing Frida’s only known mural, a candlelit basement that once served as her private retreat, and rooms dedicated to family initiatives like La Ayuda, a charity for single mothers. Museo Casa Kahlo foregrounds Frida’s roles as sister, aunt, and friend, illuminating the networks of support and inspiration that fueled her artistic life.
Mexico City welcomes Museo Casa Kahlo | image courtesy of the Museo Casa Kahlo
Courtyards, Corridors, and Hidden Rooms
Visitors arrive through a narrow corridor that traces the historic driveway of Casa Roha, lined with historical photographs and hand-crafted signage, before stepping into a restored courtyard. Here, a large grapefruit tree that references Frida’s kitchen mural sits in a hand-carved cantera stone pot, surrounded by planters in green clay from Oaxaca, red clay from Guadalajara, and monumental Purépecha vessels from Michoacán. Native plantings and locally sourced cast-iron benches evoke the feeling of a lived-in home, and a curved corner stair reintroduced from historic photos recalls the family gatherings once staged here.
Descending into the basement, Mariana Doet Zepeda Orozco and Rockwell Group recreate Frida’s hidden studio, a quiet room filled with personal objects, dolls, paintings, and her microscope for studying insects. The space is intimate, almost secretive, with soft candlelight and tactile displays that invite slow observation. With wood, stone, and ceramics at its core, the design radiates warmth and reflects the region’s artisanal heritage, grounding Frida’s story in the textures of her family home.
the museum is located in Casa Roha, the historic home of Frida’s sister Cristina Kahlo
The Next Chapter of frida’s Story
The museum also foregrounds contemporary artistic voices, with rotating exhibitions of Mexican, Latin American, and female artists who echo or challenge Kahlo’s vision. As Mara Romeo Kahlo, Frida’s grandniece, notes, the museum is a family project. ‘To welcome the public into these spaces is, for us, a tribute to the Kahlo family’s tradition of hospitality,’ she shares. ‘This museum honors the spirit of family, generosity, and creativity that has been passed down to us.’
Museo Casa Kahlo is administered by director Adán García Fajardo with chief curator Adriana Miranda and represents the most significant expansion of the Kahlo family’s cultural footprint in decades. For visitors, it offers a rare chance to inhabit the domestic spaces that nourished the artist’s creativity, revealing a side of the artist rarely seen by the public.
a large grapefruit tree that references Frida’s kitchen mural sits in a hand-carved cantera stone pot
exhibition design by Rockwell Group and graphic design by Pentagram
