Films by Yoko Ono

Yoko Ono Fluxfilm No. 9: Eye Blink, 1966. (c) Yoko Ono, courtesy of the artist

Los Angeles Filmforum presents

Films by Yoko Ono

Sunday July 26, 2026, 2:00 pm

At 2220 Arts + Archives, 2220 Beverly Blvd. Los Angeles CA 90057

Tickets: $15 general, $10 students/seniors, free for Filmforum members. 

In conjunction with The Broad’s exhibition Yoko Ono: Music of the Mind, Filmforum presents some films of hers not included in the exhibition, along with a few others that are. 

The films of Yoko Ono demand that one slows down to view them.  They might be humorous or rarified, reserved or unruly, precise or uncontrolled.  Plot is not important; the idea behind them is, and calls for absorption in the space and time to look closer, perhaps to meditate or to dream.  While a few of these are installed in the exhibition at The Broad and others are not, the opportunity to sit with them in full in a darkened room allows the possibility of a full appreciation.

“All Ono’s films are fundamentally conceptual, and are characterized by the same concerns that underpin her work in other media: the body, duration, ephemerality, seriality, measurement, language, an active engagement of the viewer as participant, a performative structure, attention to the properties of the material, and a break with the autonomous work of art.  Many of these tenets later characterized both Conceptual Art and structural film for which Fluxus film is now acknowledged as an important precursor.  In 1961, the Fluxus artist Henry Flynt wrote a definitive essay, “Concept Art,” in which he gave the first definition of Conceptual Art; terming it ‘concept art’ and ‘structure art,’ he linked it to the principles of experimental music being established by composers uch as La Monte Young, with whom Ono was presenting concerts in her Chambers Street loft the year Flynt’s text was written” – Chrissie Iles, “Erotic Conceptualism: The Films of Yoko Ono,” in Yes Yoko Ono (Japan Society & Harry N. Abrams, 2000), p. 202.

Yoko Ono (b. 1933, Tokyo) is an artist, musician, and activist whose work has shaped contemporary art and culture for more than seven decades.

After moving to New York in the 1950s, Ono established herself within New York's artistic and musical communities. During the 1960s, she lived and worked in New York, Tokyo, and London, creating works including Cut Piece (1964) and her foundational book of instructions Grapefruit (1964).

In 1969, she married John Lennon, with whom she collaborated extensively in art, music, film, and peace activism. She has also released numerous solo and collaborative recordings, including the 1981 Grammy Award-winning Album of the Year, Double Fantasy. 

In 2009, she received the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the Venice Biennale. Her work has been the subject of major solo exhibitions at institutions including MoMA, Tate Modern, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, and The Broad, and continues to be exhibited internationally.

Special Thanks to Ed Patuto, The Broad, Connor Monahan, Yoko Ono’s Studio