Unsplash, Art from Broad Museum
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Editor, Secret Los Angeles
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April 22, 2026
Iconic artist and activist Yoko Ono’s first solo museum exhibition in Southern California is about to open right here in Los Angeles.
Titled Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind and organized in collaboration with Tate Modern, London, the upcoming exhibition is set to open this May at The Broad Museum in downtown L.A. It will include many of Ono’s iconic works stretching back to the 1950s, including interactive pieces that describe actions for viewers to complete or reflect upon, and typescript drafts for her 1964 book Grapefruit.
The exhibition actually begins outside The Broad. The museum’s olive trees will become Wish Trees for Los Angeles, a key installation for the exhibition that invites audiences to tie their own wishes to the tree branches “in a living expression of hope in Los Angeles.” The show is a nod to Ono’s 1996 show at Shoshana Wayne Gallery in Santa Monica.
Other installations include My Mommy is Beautiful (2004), where visitors can write thoughts or pin photographs of their mothers, several film and video projects, as well as anti-war works like Acorn Event (1968) and Bed Peace (1969), which were collaborations with her late husband, John Lennon.
“Yoko’s work has never been bound by place or time, but this really feels like the right moment for a show like this in Los Angeles,” Ono’s studio director, Connor Monahan, told the L.A. Times of the exhibition. “Her work transforms audiences from observers into participants, helping to shape the works and the exhibition itself. That sense of agency and connection feels especially powerful right now, and I think Los Angeles, with its spirit of experimentation and openness, will really embrace that.”
Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind runs May 23 through October 11, 2026. Look out for a preview of the space on Secret Los Angeles‘ social media accounts.