New Frida-inspired artworks take over Bankside’s streets

This summer, Tate Modern is hosting a landmark exhibition: Frida: The Making of an Icon.

To mark this event, Better Bankside has partnered Tate Collective to bring Bankside’s streets alive with a series of vibrant murals. For this project, six young and emerging artists were invited to create artworks to connect people with creativity, community and the world around them.

Inspired by Frida Kahlo’s enduring global influence as an artist who challenged convention, redefined self-expression and carved out her own space as an artist, each mural carries her spirit forward through the voices and perspectives of a new generation. These murals will be installed across Bankside between late May and mid-June.

This project is a continuation of our 2021 Beyond Boundaries programme. As well as bringing colour and joy to the area, Beyond Boundaries creates spaces for Banksiders to come together. It encourages people to explore the neighbourhood in new ways – discovering hidden corners and taking unexpected routes. The murals form part of our cultural programme, creating experiences that are uniquely Bankside.

Explore all the murals with our location map

This year’s artists include:

Amy Almeida, Paisajes Mexicanos
Inspired by the life and art of Frida Kahlo, Paisajes Mexicanos (Mexican Landscape) celebrates Frida’s heritage and the nation she championed, and points to the environmental devastation
caused by oil drilling.
Location: 25 Sumner Street, London SE1 9JA

Eddie Donaldson, Dining Table
Dining Table depicts fragmented figures emerging and dissolving into one another. The distorted bodies suspended somewhere between intimacy and estrangement.
Location: 28 Great Suffolk Street, London SE1 0U

Milena Da Rosa, Tea Break (Expanded)
Tea Break (Expanded) depicts De Rosa’s mother, Carolyn, seated within a vivid green gardenscape, holding a cup of tea in a moment of quiet contemplation. Inspired by Frida Kahlo’s use of
symbolic animals, a cat appears beneath the chair. While Carolyn seems unaware of the viewer’s gaze, expressing a sense of autonomy and inward reflection, the cat looks directly outward, subtly shifting the dynamics of observation within the scene.
Location: 55 Ewer Street, London SE1 0NR

Helena Samarasinghe, Rooted in Play
This mural references Samarasinghe’s involvement in grassroots football in Peckham, where she became interested in the rhythm and connection created between players moving together.
Location: 30 Great Guildford Street, London SE1 0HS

Gloria Da Silva, Long Live London
Drawing on themes found in Frida Kahlo’s work, such as nature, human connection, and symbolism, and on Kahlo’s last work – Viva la Vida, Watermelons (1954) – this piece is centred on the diversity of life. In response to unprecedented division, given the weaponisation of identity and nationality across the UK, Long Live London serves as a hopeful reminder for the people who share this land and are connected by the geography we each share.
Location: 28 Southwark Street, London SE1 1TU

SHARLOOLA, Here and Now
Here and Now is a mural exploring the question of what makes a person who they are. Artist sharloola brings together a mosaic of scenes, symbols, and fragmented memories that reflect
both her sense of self and the histories that have shaped it.
Location: 5 Green Dragon Court, London SE1 9AW

Explore all the murals with our location map

There are also opportunities for Bankside businesses to get involved, whether that’s hosting a Frida-inspired workshop, or providing Frida colouring sheets for your younger diners. Speak to Emma Charter to find out more, ec@betterbankside.co.uk.