Yoko Ono, Music of the Mind anchors The Broad’s summer in Los Angeles
Published on 08/26/2026 at 10:33 | Editorial responsibility: Rafael Müller, Editor-in-Chief AD HOC NEWS
Yoko Ono shapes the summer program at The Broad in Los Angeles with the retrospective Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind. As The Broad notes, the special exhibition runs from May 23 to October 11, 2026, marking Ono’s first solo museum show in Southern California The Broad exhibition page.
The Broad exhibition in detail
The Broad presents Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind as a special exhibition that traces more than seven decades of Ono’s work, from text-based scores of the 1950s and 1960s to recent large-scale installations informed by her peace campaigns The Broad exhibition page. Tickets to the show include access to the museum’s third-floor galleries, where works by Takashi Murakami, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Roy Lichtenstein are also installed.
Every Thursday evening from 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM, The Broad offers free admission to Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind, positioning the retrospective as a central public access point to Ono’s oeuvre over the summer. Parallel program partners such as KCRW underline that the exhibition remains on view through October 11, 2026, with timed tickets available via the museum’s website KCRW event listing.
Summer program and performance context
The Broad and partner outlets frame the Los Angeles presentation as part of a traveling survey that originated at Tate Modern in London and passed through institutions in Düsseldorf, Berlin and Chicago before arriving in California. In Los Angeles, the retrospective is embedded in a broader summer program that includes concert and performance evenings referencing Ono’s music and instruction pieces, further extending her cross-media impact.
Media coverage highlights how historic works such as the performance Cut Piece enter the galleries in archival form, with black-and-white documentation projected as part of Music of the Mind and new performances staged in the city, underscoring the continued relevance of Ono’s participatory practice.
All news and background on Yoko Ono
For further reporting on Yoko Ono’s exhibitions, performances and market developments, the AD HOC NEWS archive provides additional context and updates.
The practice across seven decades
Yoko Ono’s practice spans instruction pieces, performance, film, sound works and installations that invite audiences to complete the work through action, reflection or imagination. Early scores such as the texts gathered in Grapefruit and pieces like Sky Piece to Jesus Christ established her as a central figure in conceptual and Fluxus-related art.
Across the decades, Ono has repeatedly returned to participatory formats, from inviting visitors to mend broken ceramic in Mend Piece to tying wishes to trees in Wish Tree, making her work unusually dependent on audience presence and collaboration. Against this backdrop, institutional retrospectives such as Music of the Mind must stage not only objects but also instructions, documenting both historical performances and ongoing participation.
Position in public collections and exhibitions
The current Broad exhibition sits within a larger institutional arc: Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind was previously presented at Tate Modern in London as the UK’s largest survey of her work, then traveled to Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen in Düsseldorf, Gropius Bau in Berlin and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago before the Los Angeles leg. This sequence places Ono firmly within the museum tier that also includes MoMA and major European collections, even when individual collection entries are not enumerated in each press text.
Parallel projects such as Yoko Ono: Insound and Instructure, developed with Studio One, MUSAC in León and the Sak?p Sabanc? Museum in Istanbul, extend her presence into other geographies and underline the depth of her catalogue of instruction pieces, films and participatory works beyond the Broad installation. Taken together, these exhibitions map a sustained institutional engagement with Ono’s practice across Europe, North America and Türkiye.
Key facts on Yoko Ono
- Artist: Yoko Ono
- Medium / Genre: Conceptual art, performance, installation, music
- Born: 1933, Tokyo, Japan
- Place(s) of practice: New York and international projects
- Active since: mid-1950s, with early scores and performances in New York and Tokyo
- Key work groups: Grapefruit instruction pieces, Cut Piece performances, peace campaigns such as War Is Over!, participatory installations including Mend Piece and Wish Tree
- Current/last exhibition: Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind, The Broad, Los Angeles, May 23 to October 11, 2026
- Major collections: Tate Modern (London) and other leading museums that have co-organized recent retrospectives
- Awards: Numerous honors as artist and activist, including recognition for her peace campaigns and experimental music, documented across institutional biographies
- Next date: Exhibition Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind on view at The Broad, Los Angeles, through October 11, 2026
Frequently asked questions about Yoko Ono
Where can Yoko Ono’s work be seen in Los Angeles in August 2026?
In August 2026, Yoko Ono’s retrospective Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind is on view at The Broad in downtown Los Angeles, as confirmed by the museum’s exhibition page and partner listings.
How long does the exhibition Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind run at The Broad?
The Broad states that Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind runs from May 23 to October 11, 2026, with timed tickets and free Thursday evenings from 5:00 PM to 8:00 PM.
What does the exhibition Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind focus on?
According to The Broad and earlier coverage of the traveling show, the exhibition spans more than seven decades of Ono’s conceptual, performance and installation work, emphasizing audience participation and her ongoing campaigns for peace.
This article was produced with a.i. support and editorially reviewed. All statements without guarantee; auction results, exhibition dates and awards may change at short notice.
