Art Connects | Yoko Ono: Forever Radical

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Join us for a conversation with Gunnar B. Kvaran and Cheryl Sim, co-curators of the exhibition GROWING FREEDOM: The instructions of Yoko Ono and The art of John and Yoko. They will discuss visionary artist Yoko Ono’s enduring spirit of radicality as evidenced in her instruction works, as well as in the language she uses to express herself artistically and philosophically.

Tracing the artist’s upbringing in Japan, Kvaran and Sim will illuminate how Ono’s roots inform her political point of view, one that bridges literature, religion, music and performance to embrace a philosophy of participation that invites visitors to complete the works of art by becoming a part of it.

This conversation will be moderated by Stephanie Rebick, Associate Curator.

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Gunnar B. Kvaran was born in Reykjavík, Iceland, in 1955. He received a PhD in Art History from the Unviersity of Provence, aix-en-Provence, France, in 1986. Kvaran was director of the Reykjavík Art Museum between 1989 and 1997 and, from 1997 to 2001, was director of Bergen Art Museum, Norway. He has been director of the Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, Norway, since 2001. Kvaran was co-curator for the 2nd Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art in 2007, curator for the Lyon Biennale in 2013, and co-curator of the Belgrade Biennale — October Salon (together with Danielle Kvaran). Recently, he curated the exhibitions Anselm Kiefer: Livres et xylographies (together with Natalia Granero); Yoko Ono: THE SKY IS STILL BLUE, YOU KNOW… (Instituto Tornie Ohtake, Sao Paulo, Brazil); Los Angeles, a Fiction (together with Daniel Birnbaum); and Matthew Barney: Bildungsroman, Andy Warhol by Andy Warhol, China Power Station (co-curated with Hans Ulrich Obrist and Julia Peyton-Jones).

Cheryl Sim is the Managing Director and Curator at the PHI Foundation for Contemporary Art in Montreal, as well as a media artist and scholar. She began her professional life at the National Film Board of Canada, which led her to video art and working for many years in artist-run centres. As an artist, her work in video and installation, has persistently dealt with questions of identity formation, kinship and diasporic experiences. As a curator at the Foundation, recent exhibitions include UNION by Lee Bae and RELATIONS: Diaspora and Painting. She has a PhD in the études et pratiques des arts program at UQÀM. Her book Wearing the Cheongsam: Dress and Culture in a Chinese Diaspora was published by Bloomsbury Academic, UK in 2019.