{"article":{"id":6338,"title":"MCA Chicago will be exclusive US venue for Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind","excerpt":"","body":"

Yoko Ono, Helmets (Pieces of Sky), 2021. Installation view, Yoko Ono: Between the Sky and My Head,

Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art, Gateshead, UK, 2008. Photo © Baltic Centre for Contemporary Art.



Via PR


CHICAGO—The Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago is thrilled to announce Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind, opening October 2025. The MCA is the exclusive US venue for this comprehensive solo exhibition dedicated to artist, musician, and activist Yoko Ono (b. 1933, Tokyo, Japan; lives in New York, NY). Traveling from Tate Modern in London, where it enjoyed record attendance, and in close collaboration with Ono’s studio, this groundbreaking retrospective covers 70 years of Ono’s trailblazing career, with over 200 works including participatory instruction pieces and scores, installations, a curated music room, films, music and photography, and archival materials. The exhibition reveals Ono’s innovative approach to language, art and participation that continues to speak to the present moment.


Participation is an important feature of Yoko Ono’s vision as an artist, which is why visitors will be able to partake in several interactive, instruction-based artworks throughout Music of the Mind. This exhibition underscores Ono’s legacy of radical performance and her significant and influential contributions to visual art, including Fluxus and Conceptualism; music; film, and activism. The MCA is proud to welcome this timely exhibition, spotlighting Ono’s revelatory art from the last seven decades.


“We are thrilled to present Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind here at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago—a celebration of Ono’s expansive practice which continues to challenge the boundaries of artist and audience,” Pritzker Director Madeleine Grynsztejn said. “This exhibition underscores the avant-garde and interdisciplinary roots that made the MCA what it is today—our first performance in 1967 featured Fluxus artists. We’re overjoyed to bring Ono’s work to the MCA, a museum that so truly aligns with her practice and overlaps with her history.”


Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind documents the artist’s career starting with the mid-1950s, exploring her pivotal role in avant-garde circles in New York, Tokyo, and London, including the development of her ‘instruction pieces’, and the active role she played in the formation of Fluxus, the loose art collective and movement founded in New York in the early 1960s. The exhibition highlights key works from across her decades-long career, including her performance Cut Piece (1964), considered a landmark in performance and feminist art; her collaborations with notable musicians such as John Cage, Ornette Coleman, and her late husband, John Lennon; selected activations of instruction-based art from her influential book Grapefruit (1964); her innovative films of the 1960s and 70s including FLY (1970–71) and her banned Film No.4 (Bottoms) (1966–67) which she created as a ‘petition for peace’; recent works such as her ongoing Wish Tree installation, (1996-present); and public artworks that are emblematic of Ono’s commitment to peace activism. 



Yoko Ono, Add Colour (Refugee Boat), 2016. Installation view, MAXXI Foundation, Rome, IT, 2016. Photo © Musacchio, Ianniello & Pasqualini.



The exhibition features several participatory artworks, such as Painting to Hammer a Nail (1961/1966), Bag Piece (1964), and White Chess Set (1966), among others. Later works like Add Color (Refugee Boat) (1960/2016) encourage guests to write their hopes and beliefs on a white boat and its surroundings, while the installation My Mommy Is Beautiful (2004) gives the public an opportunity to share thoughts about their relationship to their mothers and motherhood and attach photographs of their mother. Additionally, there will be public activations of Ono’s peace-driven artworks on billboards throughout the city of Chicago and on the MCA’s premises.


“Yoko Ono is a wildly influential and significant figure in performance, conceptualism, music, and activism. She has inspired generations of audiences to think differently about the everyday and seeing art,” said Manilow Senior Curator Jamillah James. “It is an honor to host this wide-ranging exhibition, which is a critical opportunity that invites the public to deeply engage with Ono’s many important contributions to visual art in new and exciting ways.\"


Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind is organized by Tate Modern, London in collaboration with Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf and Gropius Bau, Berlin and curated by Juliet Bingham, Curator, International Art, Tate Modern with Andrew de Brún, Assistant Curator, International Art, Tate Modern. The MCA presentation is organized (curated) by Jamillah James, Manilow Senior Curator with Korina Hernandez, Curatorial Assistant.



Yoko Ono, Apple, 1966. © Yoko Ono. Installation view, Yoko Ono: One Woman Show, 1960–1971, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY,

2015. Digital Image © 2015 MoMA, N.Y. Photo: Thomas Griesel. 





ABOUT THE ARTIST


Yoko Ono is an artist, musician, and activist. 


Born in Tokyo, 1933, Ono grew up in Japan, with periods spent abroad in San Francisco and New York. She was the first woman admitted to the philosophy program at Gakushuin University in Tokyo, where she studied before moving to New York in 1953 to attend Sarah Lawrence College. 


In 1956, she settled in Manhattan with her then husband, composer Toshi Ichiyanagi. Immersed in a community of artists and composers, Ono began to develop her own art practice, often in the form of instructions that invited the viewer’s participation. In 1960, she rented a loft on Chambers Street in Lower Manhattan and began organizing performances and events in the space with La Monte Young, becoming a vital part of the New York art and music scene. 


In 1961, Ono’s first solo exhibition was held at George Maciunas’ AG Gallery in New York. Painting to Be Stepped On, a work of canvas placed on the floor with a card inviting the viewer to step on it, was one of several Instruction Paintings exhibited. Later that year, she gave a performance at Carnegie Recital Hall that included works involving movement, sound, and voice, such as, AOS – To David Tudor, and A Grapefruit in the World of Park. 


In March 1962, Ono returned to Tokyo, where she debuted new performances at the Sogetsu Art Center, including The Pulse, and exhibited her Instructions for Paintings, a progression from works shown at AG Gallery. These works, comprised only of written instructions, marked a key moment in the history of conceptual art. Later that year, she performed with John Cage and David Tudor on a concert tour throughout Japan. In 1964, Ono performed Cut Piece and Bag Piece in Kyoto and Tokyo, and self-published Grapefruit, her foundational book of instructions. 


In the fall of 1964, Ono returned to New York, continuing to perform and stage events, and pioneering new ways of disseminating her art through advertising and postcard events. She also began making her own films, including Film No. 4, Matchand Eyeblink. 


In September 1966, Ono was invited to London to perform and lecture in the Destruction in Art Symposium. Remaining in London, she had a solo exhibition at Indica Gallery and Lisson Gallery the following year, showing new conceptual object-based works such as White Chess Set, Apple, and Half-A-Room. During this period, she continued to make films, including a new version of Film No. 4 (Bottoms), and presented a series of performances on her concert tour Music of the Mind. 


At her Indica Gallery exhibition, Ono met John Lennon, beginning a personal and artistic relationship in art, music, and activism. By 1969 their conceptual events to promote peace had become world-wide news, including the WAR IS OVER! If you want it campaign, and Bed-In for Peace, held in an Amsterdam hotel room during their honeymoon in 1969 and later in Montreal.


In the late 1960s and early 1970s Ono and Lennon’s activities centered primarily on music, film, and activism. Ono released four solo albums and four collaborative albums with Lennon over just five years, while also making multiple films, including FLY, Freedom, “RAPE”, Apotheosis, and Imagine. 


In 1971 Ono had her first retrospective exhibition, This Is Not Here, at the Everson Art Museum. Later that year, her unofficial conceptual exhibition, Museum of Modern [F]art at the Museum of Modern Art was advertised in the Village Voice and documented as a new film. 


In 1973, Ono and Lennon announced the birth of a new conceptual country, Nutopia, with “no land, no boundaries, no passports, only people.” In 1975 the birth of their son, Sean Ono Lennon, influenced the couple’s decision to take a break from public life. 


In August 1980, Ono and Lennon returned to the studio to record their first album together since 1972. Double Fantasy was released in November and went on to win the 1981 Grammy Award for Album of the Year. Less than a month after its release, Lennon was shot and killed by an assassin outside their home in New York. 


Emerging from the tragedy of Lennon’s death, Ono immersed herself in making music, releasing several albums during the decade. “It was the music that made me survive,” Ono said. After a long absence from exhibiting her art in museums and galleries, her 1989 solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art, Yoko Ono: Objects, Film, signaled a renewed interest in her art. She continued to exhibit extensively around the world.


In 2000 Yes Yoko Ono, a retrospective exhibition originating at the Japan Society Gallery in New York toured to thirteen international venues over four years. In 2007, Ono unveiled the IMAGINE PEACE TOWER on Videy, an island off the coast of Reykjavik, Iceland, giving a permanent home to her and Lennon’s long-standing commitment to world peace. In 2009, she was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 53rd Venice Biennale. That same year, Ono released Between My Head and the Sky, her first studio album as Plastic Ono Band since 1973. In 2018, Ono released her thirteenth solo studio album, Warzone. 


Ono’s work has continued to be honored with numerous exhibitions at some of the world’s most prestigious venues, including The Museum of Modern Art in New York (2015) and Tate Modern in London (2024). 


In a career spanning more than 70 years, Ono’s work as an artist and activist remains singularly relevant and continues to challenge the boundaries of artist and audience. 


Details at mcachicago.org


Top image: Yoko Ono with Glass Hammer, 1967, from Half-A-Wind Show, Lisson Gallery, London, UK, 1967. Artwork © Yoko Ono. Photo © Clay Perry.

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By CGN STAFF


Illinois Holocaust Museum & Education Center will reopen its Skokie location on November 11, 2026, following a renovation that expands visitor spaces, updates its core Holocaust exhibition and adds a new reflection gallery. The reopening is timed to coincide with Veterans Day. Active military personnel, veterans and their families will receive free admission that day.


The project includes a redesigned Lillian & Larry Goodman Auditorium and Gallery, an enlarged lobby in the Shapiro Family Foundation Welcome Center, and a refreshed Resilience Hall with an expanded stage for presentations and public programs.


Updates to the Zev & Shifra Karkomi Holocaust Exhibition include additional material on the roots of antisemitism, the story of Chicago resident Leo Edelman, and the experiences of other groups targeted by the Nazis. A new reflection gallery, accessible from the exhibition, offers visitors a quiet space during and after their visit.


“Every visitor’s experience now begins differently and runs deeper,” said Kelley Szany, the Museum’s senior vice president of education and exhibitions. “The new welcome center sets the tone from the moment people arrive, the enhanced core Holocaust exhibition brings the history and the voices of survivors into sharper focus, and our new auditorium gives us a place to gather, listen, and talk about what it means for our communities today.”


Existing attractions, including the virtual reality theater, the interactive Survivor Stories Experience holographic theater, the Take A Stand Center and the Voices of Genocide Exhibition, will remain part of the Museum’s offerings.


Following the reopening, Blacklist: The Hollywood Red Scare will open November 15 in the special exhibition gallery. Created by and on loan from Jewish Museum Milwaukee, the exhibition examines the intersections of politics, antisemitism, freedom of speech and national security during the Red Scare of the 1940s and 1950s. It will remain on view through March 2027.


The Museum’s satellite location in Chicago’s River North neighborhood, Experience360, will remain open through December 31, 2026. The downtown space opened during the Skokie renovation to provide continued access to the Museum’s immersive exhibitions.


For information and ticket reservations, visit ilholocaustmuseum.org.


Image: Museum exterior. Photo by David Seide/Definedspace.com

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By GINNY VAN ALYEA


SOFA Chicago, the longtime fair devoted to sculpture, objects, functional art and collectible design, will return to the city October 28–31, 2027, as part of Chicago Art Fair at THE MART, which opened its inaugural edition last night.


Founded in Chicago in 1994, SOFA became a popular fixture on the city’s fall arts calendar. For much of its history, collectors and visitors gathered at Navy Pier to discover works in glass, ceramics, wood, metal and fiber, alongside sculpture and design. Its focus on materials and craftsmanship gave the fair a distinct identity and cultivated a devoted audience.


The announcement comes as the inaugural Chicago Art Fair gets underway at THE MART. The new fair opened with a preview on October 7 and continues through October 10, presenting modern and contemporary art. Tim von Gal, CEO and producer of SOFA Chicago and CEO of Intersect Art and Design, was in Chicago this week for the occasion.

Organizers describe the 2027 collaboration as two distinct but complementary presentations under one roof, with SOFA’s focus on three-dimensional art and design alongside Chicago Art Fair’s broader offerings.


“Chicago has always been an extraordinary home for SOFA and a city with a deep appreciation for art, craft, architecture and design,” said von Gal in the announcement. “Joining the Chicago Art Fair at THE MART gives us the opportunity to build upon that legacy while creating an exciting new experience for collectors and exhibitors alike.”

Eric Smith, owner of Chicago Art Fair and CEO of Redwood Art Group, said the addition would broaden the fair’s scope while preserving SOFA’s identity.


“SOFA has a remarkable legacy and a distinct identity, and its return adds an important new dimension to the fair while reinforcing Chicago’s position as a destination for collectors, galleries and art lovers from around the world,” Smith said.


For those who remember SOFA as an annual opportunity to encounter ambitious work in craft and design, the return will be welcome news. The participating galleries and programming, still to be announced, will provide a fuller picture of how that legacy will take shape in its new setting.


SOFA Chicago is produced by Intersect Art and Design, which also organizes annual art and design fairs in Aspen and Palm Springs.


Additional details about exhibitors, partnerships and tickets are expected in the coming months.


Visit chicagoartfair.com for updates.

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The artist Richard Hunt



By CGN Staff


Pigment International has dedicated Black Fine Art Month 2026 to Chicago sculptor Richard Hunt (1935–2023), recognizing his contributions to American art and his lifelong connection to the city.


As part of the month’s programming, the organization will host Pigmented: Chicago to the World — A Black Fine Art Convening on October 23 at the University of Chicago’s Logan Center for the Arts. Partners include the Richard Hunt Legacy Foundation, Adler University, CAI Designs, Chicago Public Art Group, Chicago Sculpture Exhibit and Diasporal Rhythms.


Born and raised on Chicago’s South Side, Hunt developed an internationally recognized practice while continuing to live and work in his hometown. His welded metal sculptures brought together abstract forms, references to the natural world and an enduring interest in freedom and social justice.


Hunt identified attending Emmett Till’s funeral in 1955 as a turning point in his artistic life. Till had lived just two blocks from Hunt’s home. Decades later, Hunt’s public commissions would honor figures including Martin Luther King Jr., Mary McLeod Bethune, Jesse Owens and Ida B. Wells, while also addressing the Middle Passage and the Great Migration.

In 1968, President Lyndon Johnson appointed Hunt to the National Council on the Arts, where he became its first African American member. In 1971, at age 35, he became the first African American sculptor to receive a retrospective at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. His career encompassed more than 150 solo exhibitions and more than 160 public art installations.


Richard Hunt with artist Chris Devins, who recently completed a mural honoring the sculptor in Hyde Park. Photo courtesy of Chris Devins.


Recent projects in Chicago offer new ways to encounter Hunt’s work and history. This fall, the Logan Center opened the Hunt, a café honoring the artist. Created and designed by Little Black Pearl founder and executive director Monica Haslip, the space incorporates two Hunt sculptures, African art, archival materials and photographs by Sandro Miller.

In Hyde Park, artist Chris Devins and historian Michelle Duster have brought a mural of Hunt to 1515–19 E. 54th Street. The portrait is based on photographs Devins took in Hunt’s studio before the sculptor’s death.


“Richard Hunt was a giant in the arts world and people need to see what he looked like and be inspired by his legacy,” Devins said.


Pigment International’s dedication also reflects its own relationship with Hunt. The organization featured him in its magazine in 2020, and he welcomed its Black Fine Art Month programming into his studio in October 2021.


#


Two events take place this month:


Pigment International at SPECTRUM Chicago Art Fair


October 7–10, 2026.

Chicago Merchandise Mart, seventh floor, booth #3091.

Wednesday, October 7, 5–8 pm, with a champagne toast in the booth and an artist meet-and-greet.

Thursday, October 8, 6-8pm with Diasporal Rhythms

Featured artists: Jesse Howard, Howard Simmons, Edo, Candace Hunter, Sura DuPart and Max Sansing.

Additional events are taking place during the fair


Chicago to the World: A Black Fine Art Month Convening

Presented by Pigment International as part of Black Fine Art Month, which the organization has dedicated this year to Richard Hunt.

Friday, October 23, 2026, 11:30 am–5 pm.

Logan Center for the Arts, 915 E. 60th Street, Chicago.


Details at pigmentintl.com



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