The Hollywood Bowl, an iconic Los Angeles amphitheater synonymous with orchestral grandeur and summer tradition, is set to undergo a radical metamorphosis tonight. Los Angeles–based artist Lauren Halsey, known for her intricate, community-centered, and maximalist sculptural environments, is taking over the historic venue for a one-night-only event titled "Emajendat." The project represents a singular convergence of fine art and live music, featuring a curated, star-studded lineup headlined by the legendary Erykah Badu.
Doors to the Bowl open at 6 p.m., inviting visitors into a sprawling, large-scale installation that functions as an immersive environment rather than a traditional concert stage. Halsey, who has designed the entire aesthetic landscape for the evening, has crafted a space that promises to blur the lines between a museum-grade art installation and a high-energy music festival. The lineup is as eclectic as it is ambitious, featuring sets from The Alchemist, DJ Pee .Wee (the alias of Anderson .Paak), and legendary bassist Flea. Additionally, artist Charles Gaines will present a collaborative performance with Black Nile and Devin Daniels. The evening will be guided by actor Yvonne Orji, who is set to serve as the event’s host.
For Halsey, the project is the culmination of a long-standing creative ambition. The genesis of the event began when she approached Johanna Rees, the vice president for programming and creative partnerships at the Hollywood Bowl, with a proposition that had been brewing in her mind for years.
"I knew that I just had to jump in, and the opportunity wasn’t going to come to me," Halsey told ARTnews. "I said to her, ‘What would you think about a visual artist doing a campus takeover—very maximalist esthetic, all anchored by a stage or a headliner?’ I thought how cool it could be to just remix it and turn it on its head."
Rees, recognizing the potential for a transformative partnership, embraced the vision. The inclusion of Erykah Badu was a natural choice for Halsey, who had previously worked with the neo-soul icon when she invited her to DJ the Hammer Museum’s 2025 gala, an evening that honored both Halsey and the actor and activist Jane Fonda.
The Hollywood Bowl holds a deep, personal resonance for the artist. Growing up in Los Angeles, the amphitheater was a fixture of her childhood, imprinted on her memory through school field trips and summer camp visits. "The spaciousness, how beautiful it is—I always knew I wanted to do something there," she reflected.
Halsey’s career has been defined by a multidisciplinary approach that refuses to be confined by the white-cube aesthetics of the traditional gallery world. Long before she earned her BFA from the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) in 2012, she was experimenting with spatial design, creating elaborate sets for performances at the church she attended in her youth. These early experiences were heavily influenced by the theatrical, Afrofuturist spectacle of the band Parliament-Funkadelic. The band’s ability to create a cohesive, visual, and sonic world left a lasting mark on her creative practice.
"It’s always been a goal of mine to contextualize objects around musicians in a live setting," she noted.
As her profile in the art world has ascended, Halsey has consistently sought to integrate live music into her projects as a means of celebration and community connection. When her longtime dealer, David Kordansky, expanded his gallery to New York, Halsey inaugurated the space with a solo show and subsequently tapped Ms. Lauryn Hill to perform at an after-party held at the Boom Boom Room. Her history of hiring musicians for such events includes an impressive roster of talent, such as Doechii, Erykah Badu, and the progenitors of her own aesthetic, Parliament-Funkadelic.
Tonight’s performance at the Hollywood Bowl builds directly upon that established rapport with Badu. "I built a sort of world around her, and I’m excited to present it," Halsey said. The "world" she refers to is deeply rooted in the visual language of her signature collage work—a style she describes as "super saturated" and "super dense."
The installation draws inspiration from what Halsey calls her "funk mounds," a specific typology of work characterized by intricate vignettes buried within larger, layered forms. By isolating specific moments from these works and scaling them up, she has created a spatial experience that is inherently experimental. While she remains tight-lipped about the specific visual surprises in store for the audience, the environment is intended to feel both expansive and intimate.
Beyond her own collage work, the campus takeover draws aesthetic cues from another quintessential Los Angeles landmark: the Santa Monica Pier. Halsey has integrated elements of the boardwalk’s arcade culture—including ping pong tables, mini-golf, and basketball games—into the Bowl’s environment, reinterpreting these recreational staples through her own unique artistic vocabulary.
The event also serves as a thematic extension of her 2024 exhibition, "emajendat," held at the Serpentine Galleries in London. "That whole show was me chasing my funk and having fun," she said. "I’ve tried to bring that energy and that looseness, and that sort of free-spirited way of making to this—and it’s been liberating."
Despite the immense logistical challenge of mounting such a large-scale intervention, Halsey views the labor as essential. She anticipates that the evening will attract a wide-ranging, intergenerational audience, potentially drawing in those who might not typically frequent the quiet halls of museums or commercial galleries. By creating an aesthetic universe where music and visual art coexist on equal footing, she hopes to dismantle the barriers that often separate these cultural spaces.
Looking toward the future, Halsey sees the Hollywood Bowl takeover as more than a one-off spectacle; it is a "proof of concept." She envisions this model evolving into an annual tradition—a festival or concert series where she builds a distinct, immersive aesthetic universe around the work of various musicians. This ambition reflects a long-term interest in public-facing, community-rooted work, much like her "Sister Dreamer Park" project in South Los Angeles, a concept she workshopped for nearly 17 years across various institutions and private spaces.
Tonight, as the sun sets over the Hollywood Hills, the Bowl will serve as the canvas for that vision. It is a moment where the artist’s childhood awe meets her professional maturity, creating a space that is as much a testament to her past inspirations as it is a blueprint for the future of live performance. As fans gather for the event, they are not just attending a concert; they are stepping into a carefully constructed world, designed to celebrate the convergence of sound, space, and the indomitable spirit of Los Angeles culture.