Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago hosts Yoko Ono’s ‘Music of the Mind’ exhibit

CHICAGO (WGN) – Inside the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, you’ll find the exhibition of pop figure icon Yoko Ono.

“It’s huge for Chicago,” MCA curator Jamillah James said. “One could say she was one of the original influencers.”

The exhibit is quite interactive and challenges spectators to imagine.

“Yoko Ono is incredibly influential for use of the voice as an instrument, is so provocative, so exciting; she’s influenced so many musicians that I also hold dear,” James said. “It has 200 object in it which is no easy feat to organize, I have to say….there’s performance documentation, there’s sound, there’s music, there’s photography.”

Chicago is the North American premiere for Yoko Ono Music of the Mind.

“The exhibition was organized at the Tate Modern in London, so we talked with our friends at Tate and made arrangement for it to come here, which is an amazing opportunity for Chicago and the MCA to celebrate this important, influential artist,” James said.

The exhibit spans Ono’s seven decades in art, from the 1950s through her relationship and marriage to John Lennon and her work beyond, challenging us to imagine.

“Yoko, it should be known, was a totally, fully fledged artist before she became a pop cultural figure, a figure that people know better in certain context than perhaps her visual work,” James said. “Any way you come to the exhibition, you’re going to have good time, you’re going to learn about Yoko Ono and her work, and I hope, come away with a better idea of who she is, who she has been and also, have a different sense of the world.”

Yoko Ono Music of the Mind runs now through Feb. 22 at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.

Tickets can be purchased here.