Deep Dive Into David Hockney and His Latest Exhibition

Wander into the newly opened Lightroom structure in London’s Kings Cross, immerse in David Hockney’s Gregory Swimming Los Angeles March 31st 1982, projected around the 11.2-metre high room, ceiling and floor, and the feeling of cinematic splash is palpable.

This is David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller and further away), a personal journey through the artist’s oeuvre, both familiar and new, with a score by American composer Nico Muhly and Hockney’s own commentary, in which the octogenarian British artist’s fascination with new media is lent vibrant expression. Divided into chapters, the 50-minute show sees him experiment with perspective, “draw with a camera”, capture time’s passing in Polaroid collages and render joyful spring blooms on his iPad.

Hockney has long embraced technology, whether fax, Polaroid, iPhones or iPads, and this show synchronises 28 futuristic projectors. And there’s Los Angeles lifestyle-ism, the modern and contemporary gloss of be-painted luxury, resort-worthy, wellness-y pools and pools and pools … of swimmingest bluetopia. Swan dive into Bigger’s declensions of depth, feeling and pheeling (because with Hockney, it’s as much philosophical and intellectual as it’s felt), and vibe it, dream it, fly it, even … and float back out on the wonder of it all.

This spectacular presentation runs from February 22nd – June 4th 2023