Yoko Ono finally receives her first solo exhibition in Southern California with "Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind" opening May 23, 2026 at the Broad museum in Los Angeles. The retrospective spans seven decades of her work as a conceptual artist, peace activist, and musician, featuring instructional pieces like "Painting to Hammer a Nail" (1961/1966), her famous 1964 book "Grapefruit," and a video of her iconic performance "Cut Piece." The exhibition, organized in collaboration with Tate Modern, also includes participatory elements such as "Wish Trees for Los Angeles" (1996/2026) and a series of peace-themed billboards, running through October 11, 2026.
This exhibition matters because it corrects a long-standing oversight in Southern California's art scene, where Ono's solo work has never been shown despite her being a pioneering conceptual artist since the 1950s. By highlighting her independent artistic achievements—often overshadowed by her marriage to John Lennon—the Broad museum reframes Ono's legacy as a major figure in avant-garde and participatory art. The show also underscores the growing institutional recognition of female and Asian artists, and its interactive nature invites visitors to complete the art themselves, embodying Ono's core philosophy that the viewer is an essential part of the creative process.