One Thousand Portraits of Frida Kahlo Take Over DC

Image courtesy of @vivienned on Instagram

By Noelia Veras and Theresa Whitfield

This weekend, there were approximately 1,000 portraits of Frida Kahlo around the D.C to honor her worldwide impact.

Local D.C. author, Theodore Carter, announced the formation of this movement in June 2018 and worked to spread it throughout the DC area. His goal was to “place 1,000 depictions of Frida Kahlo in public spaces.”

“You can take part from anywhere and your contribution can be visual art, a performance, or maybe something I haven’t thought of yet,” said Carter on his website.

He has also written a book about Frida Kahlo called Frida Sex Dreams and Other Unnerving Disruptions. He gives six different reasons on his website as to why he decided to do the night of 1,000 Fridas: “Frida was an amazing artist who led an inspiring life, to encourage everyone of all ages and abilities to create art, to bring art into public spaces, to create community, to see if we can, and 1,000 public images of a bisexual Latina communist revolutionary could do the world some good right now.”

The owner of Spacycloud Lounge, a vegetarian restaurant that is also a skateboard shop located in the DC neighborhood of Adams Morgan,  heard about the event from a friend and reached out to Carter online to be a part of the project. This is how the collaboration between Spacycloud Lounge and Carter happened, as the lounge wanted to be apart of promoting Frida Kahlo and her legacy. The trendy and multifaceted cafe Spacycloud Lounge, along with TMI Management, honored this movement and hosted an event for it. Spacycloud planned this event for approximately one month straight.

“Women empowerment and support of [the] LGBTQ community” is Spacyloud’s mission.”

They said, “being [a] part of #1kfridas was in perfect alignment with our mission and philosophy.”

The turnout for the event on Friday was amazing, there were several artists actively creating art inspired by Frida Kahlo. There were even workshops utilizing glass and body painting emulating her work. Stations were set up as well, focusing on specific crafts. One of the art stations was centered around Frida Kahlo’s eyebrows, another used recycled skateboards to create portraits, and one was jewelry making. At the event there was a live DJ and specialty SpacyFrida drinks. Some of the more interesting mediums were walls, pills, glass, recycled materials, beads, a toilet seat, flowers, and even a tortilla. Places like Spacycloud continue to make art and advocacy, popular and cool things to do.

Altogether, this movement was facilitated and successful because of the lasting impression of one woman: Frida Kahlo. This was made possible by all the creatives in DC and the people willing to share their views about the rights of the marginalized through arts.

To learn more about this event and see some of the artwork, visit Spacycloud Lounge (@spacyloungedc) and follow the hashtag #1kfridas on Instagram. To learn more about the creator of this movement, visit his website www.theodorecarter.com.