David Hockney’s Immersive Exhibition Is Coming Back To London

From the Tate Modern’s seismic Yayoi Kusama show to the multisensory Dopamine Land extravaganza, gallerists and artists are looking beyond the traditional art world, incorporating elements like video, live performance and special effects to connect with audiences in a new way. And one of the biggest artists of our time, David Hockney, jumped on the trend last year, opening his extremely popular immersive exhibition, Bigger & Closer (Not Smaller & Further Away). If you missed out, here’s a stroke of luck: Lightroom, the King’s Cross venue behind the exhibition, is bringing the popular show back this summer. Here’s everything you need to know.

David Hockney’s ‘Bigger & Closer (Not Smaller & Further Away)’ Is Coming Back

Installation of David Hockney’s Gregory Swimming Los Angeles March 31st 1982, Composite polaroid, © David Hockney

David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (Not Smaller & Further Away) takes audiences on a journey through the artist’s career to date, featuring some of his most iconic works alongside some new creations. Across six themed chapters, visitors gain insight into his artistic processes and ideas, with commentary from Hockney himself alongside a score from Nico Muhly.

We see Hockney capturing the joy of spring on his iPad, and the sheer size of the Grand Canyon with paint, as well as him putting together his famed polaroid collages.

‘The world is very very beautiful if you look at it, but most people don’t look very much. They scan the ground in front of them so they can walk, they don’t really look at things incredibly well, with an intensity. I do,’ says Hockney, in the exhibition’s voiceover.

The exhibition will return to Lightroom, a four-storeyed space in King’s Cross kitted out with the latest digital projection and audio technology. It previously opened in February 2023 and ran until October.

David Hockney viewing the model box containing August 2021, Landscape with Shadows © David Hockney. Photo credit: Mark Grimmer.

The show’s director, Mark Grimmer of 59 Productions, said: ‘We have worked with David to bring together large-scale projected images, animation, archival and bespoke interviews and a commissioned score to create a new kind of show which owes as much to Hockney’s theatrical design as to his painting, drawing and photography. It’s been thrilling to work with David over the last three years and we hope the show will introduce a whole new audience to his art.’

Lightroom is currently presenting The Moonwalkers: A Journey with Tom Hanks, which is being extended to 13 October 2024. It will be presented in repertory alongside Bigger & Closer.

When?

Bigger & Closer (Not Smaller & Further Away) will run from 17 June–13 October 2024.

Where?

It’ll be on show at Lightroom in King’s Cross (12, Lewis Cubitt Square, London N1C 4DY).

How?

Tickets cost £25 for adults, and £15 for children and students, and can be booked at lightroom.uk