To add to the Hispanic Heritage festivities this month, the Aurora Public Library (APL) will welcome the Cleve Carney Museum of art director and curator Justin Witte and his team to present Who is Frida Kahlo? at the Santori Public Library of Aurora Monday, Oct. 7. The informational session on Kahlo, her life, and work, will be presented in English from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. and in Spanish from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. in room 125/126.
Witte has been with the Museum at College of DuPage in Glen Ellyn since 2015. He received an MFA (Master of Fine Arts) from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2007. He has worked for both the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. As an illustrator, Witte has crafted weekly covers, animations, and print work for the NPR podcast, “How to Do Everything.” Prior to accepting the position as director and curator at the Cleve Carney Museum of Art, he served as exhibition manager at Columbia College, where he curated exhibits for galleries at the school. Witte brings significant art education experience to his work both in the Museum and in the community.
Witte is offering this program as an introduction to Frida Kahlo 2020, the largest exhibition of her work in the Chicago area in more than 40 years. The exhibit hosts are the Cleve Carney Museum of Art and the McAninch Arts Center at the College of DuPage until June 2020. Frida Kahlo 2020 will feature 26 original artworks on loan from the Dolores Olmedo Museum Collection, in Xochimilco, Mexico City. The Olmedo opened in 1994, and continues to present temporary exhibitions that showcase national and international artistic and cultural expressions. In Frida Kahlo 2020, Witte included a multimedia timeline with more than 100 photos, a video presentation, and other family-friendly and interactive elements to the exhibition, which will run June through August 2020.
“The moment the museum contacted me to offer this program as a sneak peak to the Frida Kahlo 2020 exhibition, I jumped at the opportunity to provide this level of informational programming around Kahlo to our community here in Aurora,” said Krista Danis, events and program coordinator. Kahlo expressed herself boldly and courageously as a Mexican woman in the early 20th Century, and her work continues to inspire and encourage young people to do the same.”
Frida Kahlo is one of the most compelling artists of the 20th Century, whose self-portraits and paintings continue to inspire curiosity in 21st Century audiences. Kahlo, a Mexican native, often portrayed her image dressed in traditional attire and the landscape of her home country sometimes visible throughout her work. In addition, themes of identity, gender, and environment emerge in her work to reveal a complicated artist refusing to separate herself from her art. Who is Frida Kahlo? offers a thorough investigation into the relationships, influences, and experiences that have shaped the treasured work she produced.
Miriam Meza-Gotto is communications manager for Aurora Public Library.