After a sell-out stint at London’s Tate Modern, a major Yoko Ono retrospective is hopping across the pond. The Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago announced it will be the only American institution to host Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind. The exhibition will open on October 18, 2025, and is scheduled to run through February 22, 2026.
“There Are a Lot of Things That People Just Don’t Know About Yoko Ono”
“Yoko Ono is a wildly influential and significant figure in performance, conceptualism, music, and activism,” said Jamillah James, senior curator and exhibition organizer at MCA Chicago, in a statement. “She has inspired generations of audiences to think differently about the everyday and seeing art.”
Born in 1933 in Tokyo, Ono developed her avant-garde artistic practice in Japan, the United States, and the United Kingdom. From the start, she broke boundaries in the burgeoning field of conceptual art with her innovative yet oft-misunderstood work. For Ono, ideas have always taken center stage, whether they’re expressed through experimental music, participatory performance pieces, political activism, or tongue-in-cheek poetry.
Joey Orr, deputy director and chief of curatorial affairs at MCA Chicago, said, “There are a lot of things that people just don’t know about Yoko Ono because she only occupies a certain portion of the public imaginary, and it’s not as deep as her contributions.”
Ono Retrospective Spans Seven Decades
Featuring over 200 works, Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind spans 70 years of the artist’s career—from her early Fluxus pieces to more recent interactive installations. The retrospective debuted at Tate Modern in London last year, attracting large audiences and garnering widespread critical acclaim. It was the UK’s largest exhibition dedicated to the artist’s multidisciplinary career.
Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind brings seven decades’ worth of photography, film, music, installations, and instruction pieces to MCA Chicago. Among these are the artist’s most iconic works. The exhibition will explore Ono’s famed Cut Piece, during which people were invited to cut off pieces of the artist’s clothing with scissors. Originally performed in 1964, it was a pioneering entry into the canons of performance art and feminist art.
Music of the Mind also presents Ono’s 1966-67 piece Film No. 4 (Bottoms). The short film was originally created as a “petition for peace”—but it was banned by the British Board of Film Censors before its scheduled premiere at the Royal Albert Hall in London.
MCA Chicago Announces Participatory Programming
MCA Chicago’s presentation of Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind will include three major programs of performances and public events. The first is scheduled during the show’s opening weekend in October which, according to Orr, “we envision as being a kind of full museum music festival takeover.” This event will include contemporary renditions of Ono’s music and score-based actions, as well as invited artists performing their own works.
Halfway through the exhibition, MCA Chicago will host a panel at the museum highlighting Ono’s impact on the music world, as well as a series of related musical performances. Finally, towards the end of the exhibition, the museum will offer live performances of some of Ono’s most famous works. The closing events will nearly coincide with the artist’s 93rd birthday in February 2026.
