The Broad will unveil Thursday the first solo museum exhibition in Los Angeles dedicated to artist, musician and activist Yoko Ono, featuring decades of conceptual works centered on peace, participation and human connection.
“Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind” opens with a media preview Thursday morning ahead of the exhibition’s public debut Saturday at the downtown Los Angeles museum.
“Since the 1950s, Yoko Ono has worked across genres and mediums from music and performance to visual art, contending with a complex spectrum of human emotion,” Sarah Loyer, curator and exhibitions manager of The Broad, said in a statement. “Her foundational contributions to 1960s conceptualism and her lifelong commitment to participation have redefined what art can be and do.”
The exhibition spans Ono’s career and includes instruction-based artworks, films, installations and materials tied to her anti-war activism and collaborations with her late husband John Lennon.
Among the featured works is “Wish Trees for Los Angeles,” an outdoor installation inviting visitors to tie written wishes to olive tree branches on The Broad’s plaza as part of a collective expression of hope.
The exhibition also includes materials from Ono and Lennon’s “Bed Peace” anti-war campaign and contemporary participatory installations such as “Helmets (Pieces of Sky)” and “Add Colour (Refugee Boat).”
“For more than seven decades, Yoko Ono has expanded the possibilities of art as a force for connection and change,” said Joanne Heyler, founding director and president of The Broad. “Poetic and bold, her emphasis on community and activism is especially timely, reminding us that imagination binds us together and can be a powerful source of collective strength.”
The Broad said the exhibition is designed to encourage audience participation and reflection through many of Ono’s best-known conceptual works.
Timed to the exhibition, the museum also announced a season of related programming including concerts, theatrical performances and public art installations across Los Angeles.
The accompanying programming will include performances of Ono’s “Cut Piece” and “Sky Piece to Jesus Christ” at REDCAT, a concert titled “Yoko Only” featuring musicians including Yo La Tengo and Yuka Honda, and a multimedia musical titled “I Am Yoko” currently in development.
The Broad also announced outdoor “Sports Raves: Multiform” events tied to the World Cup and a citywide billboard campaign displaying Ono peace messages such as “THINK PEACE,” “ACT PEACE” and “PEACE is POWER.”
The exhibition will remain on view through Oct. 11.
More information can be found at www.thebroad.org/.