“This show will really bring something new to the Kahlo discussion,” says curator Adriana Zavala of the human-plant hybrids and foliate still lifes presented in “Frida Kahlo: Art, Garden, Life,” which opened May 16 at the New York Botanical Garden. 

The exhibition explores the artist’s passion for the natural world, evident not only in the rich diversity of Mexican flora and fauna depicted in the 14 paintings and drawings on view, but in her garden of exotic tropical vegetation — which is being re-created for the show — that she tended at Casa Azul, the house she shared with Diego Rivera in Coyoacán.