Maya Escobar On Display!

The St. Lou Jew's favorite Guatemalan-Jewish Artist, Maya Escobar is on display!

Frida Kahlo played with the identity that she wanted to project and the identity that was placed on her by others. Kahlo used her clothing, political affiliations, sexual escapades, and personal traumas, to create a character that informed her body of work. She inscribed her identity, painting her image over and over, constructing a mythology around her persona.



In el es frida kahlo artist Maya Escobar confronts the ambivalence she experiences as a result of her simultaneous obsession with Frida Kahlo and weariness towards her commodification. Viewed from a tiny pinhole, Escobar, dressed as Kahlo stands before a reproduction of one of her self portraits. With a mixture of rage, anxiety, and complete fear, she chants “el es Frida Kahlo, ella es Frida Kahlo, el es Frida Kahlo, yo soy, yo soy, yo soy Frida Kahlo,” he is Frida Kahlo, she is Frida Kahlo, I am, I am, I am Frida Kahlo. As Escobar yells, the painting behind her begins to fall. She violently tears down her braids and smudge off her makeup while continuing to yell “I am Frida Kahlo, I am Frida Kahlo, yo soy Frida Kahlo!”

el es frida kahlo will be on view at the Bruno David Gallery in St. Louis, MO from 1/22-3/6.