The Los Angeles–based artist Lauren Halsey is set to completely reimagine the legendary Hollywood Bowl for a high-profile, one-night-only event featuring an eclectic, star-studded lineup. Anchored by neo-soul pioneer Erykah Badu, tonight’s ambitious production represents a major milestone in Halsey’s multidisciplinary career, seamlessly blending contemporary visual art, immersive environmental design, and boundary-pushing live music on one of the city’s most iconic stages.
Doors to the Hollywood Bowl open tonight at 6 p.m., welcoming visitors into a massive, large-scale installation-cum-environment meticulously crafted by Halsey to serve as the immersive visual backdrop for the evening. Beyond designing the entire stage, the artist has curated a powerhouse lineup of performers. Alongside Badu, the stage will feature sets by producer and artist The Alchemist, DJ Pee .Wee (the alter ego of Anderson .Paak), legendary Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, and multimedia artist Charles Gaines in a collaborative performance alongside Black Nile and Devin Daniels. The evening’s festivities will be guided by actor and comedian Yvonne Orji, serving as the official host.
The seed for this monumental campus takeover was planted when Halsey met Johanna Rees, the vice president for programming and creative partnerships at the Hollywood Bowl. Capitalizing on the moment, Halsey pitched an ambitious concept that had been brewing in her mind for years. Recognizing that major institutional opportunities rarely knock on an artist’s door uninvited, she knew she had to take the initiative.
During their initial conversation, Halsey recalled asking Rees how she would feel about a visual artist executing a complete campus takeover defined by a hyper-maximalist aesthetic, all anchored by a central stage and a visionary headliner. Describing her desire to turn the traditional concert format completely on its head, Halsey saw an opportunity to remix the standard live music experience into something entirely unprecedented for the venue.
Rees immediately responded to the bold vision, and the pair began discussing potential headliners. Halsey naturally gravitated toward Erykah Badu, having recently worked with the iconic singer and songwriter after asking her to DJ the Hammer Museum’s 2025 gala. That high-profile event honored Halsey alongside acclaimed actor and activist Jane Fonda, cementing a creative synergy between the visual artist and the musician.
For Halsey, the Hollywood Bowl holds a deeply personal significance, having occupied a cherished space in her creative imagination since childhood. She vividly remembers the lasting impression the venue left on her during school field trips and summer camp visits. Captivated by its immense spaciousness and natural architectural beauty, she always harbored a quiet ambition to stage a major project at the historic amphitheater.
Long before earning her BFA from the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in 2012, Halsey consistently embraced working across multiple disciplines, even constructing elaborate sets for performances at her local church. Her early artistic vocabulary was deeply influenced by the theatrical, otherworldly stagecraft of the legendary band Parliament-Funkadelic. Contextualizing physical objects and sculptures around musicians within a live setting has remained a primary and enduring goal throughout her artistic trajectory.
As Halsey’s profile and critical acclaim have soared within the contemporary art world, she has frequently integrated musicians into her milestone celebrations. When her primary gallerist, David Kordansky, expanded to New York and inaugurated his new space with a dedicated solo exhibition for Halsey, she famously enlisted Ms. Lauryn Hill to perform at the private after-party hosted at the Boom Boom Room. Over the years, her network of musical collaborators and honorees has expanded to include artists like Doechii, Badu, and Parliament-Funkadelic.
Tonight’s performance at the Hollywood Bowl directly builds upon her foundational first collaboration with Badu. Explaining the creative process, Halsey noted that she essentially built an entire architectural and visual world around the musician, an environment she is intensely excited to finally share with a live audience. This constructed universe draws heavily from her signature visual language, particularly her densely packed, hyper-saturated collage works.
In developing the environmental design for the Bowl, Halsey returned to a specific formal typology she refers to as her "funk mounds." These structural formations incorporate miniature vignettes embedded within their surfaces, allowing the artist to isolate fleeting moments and scale them up through an experimental lens. While keeping the exact physical details under wraps prior to tonight’s unveiling, Halsey confirmed that she has successfully realized this scaled-up vision across the venue.
The immersive campus takeover also pays homage to another quintessential Los Angeles landmark: the Santa Monica Pier. Halsey has integrated elements of the boardwalk’s classic arcade and carnival culture into the Bowl’s grounds, setting up interactive spaces featuring ping-pong tables, mini-golf, and basketball games—the latter standing out as a personal favorite of the artist. By reinterpreting these familiar recreational activities through her distinct artistic lens, she bridges the gap between public leisure and contemporary sculptural installation.
Furthermore, the design pulls thematic and aesthetic threads from her acclaimed 2024 solo exhibition at the Serpentine Galleries in London, titled "emajendat," which ultimately lent its name to tonight’s Hollywood Bowl event. Describing that London presentation as an exercise in chasing her own version of funk and creative freedom, Halsey sought to inject that same looseness, energy, and free-spirited methodology into her work in Los Angeles, describing the overall process as deeply liberating.
While acknowledging that bringing the massive production to life has required an immense amount of physical and mental labor, Halsey firmly believes the grueling effort is well worth it. She anticipates that the evening will successfully draw a diverse multitude of demographics and age groups, specifically attracting community members and audiences who might not typically frequent traditional museums and fine art galleries.
Just as her initial collaborative project with Badu served as a stepping stone toward tonight’s expansive production, Halsey envisions her Hollywood Bowl takeover as a vital proof of concept. Looking toward the future, she hopes to establish an annual festival and concert series in Los Angeles where she can consistently construct custom aesthetic universes around visionary musicians. The concept mirrors the enduring ambition behind her Sister Dreamer Park project in South Los Angeles, a community-focused public space she workshopped across various institutions, museums, and backyards for nearly seventeen years.
