The travelling immersive experience David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away) takes the lessons learnt from previous shows of Van Gogh and Monet, and raises it to a whole new level.
First opening in London 2023, after three years in development with close collaboration from the artist, it is now showing in Sydney at Carriageworks (Bay 17), and will run from 22 October 2026 to 24 January 2027.
Hockney’s career covered a phenomenal arc from that of a Yorkshire art student to becoming an important part of the pop art movement in California at an early age, and later an eminence grise of modern art.
The light and the free lifestyle of Los Angeles suit him, and he became synonymous with the city, as he explored its architecture and male figures with a bold and semi-realistic painterly style, at a time when abstract expressionism predominated.
This period is exemplified by the Splash series, which includes A Bigger Splash, that quickly became one of the iconic images of the pop art movement.
Later in life Hockney returned to his roots in rural Yorkshire, which he painted en plein air, while establishing a studio in Normandy, before returning once more to the States, where, in 1998, he embarked on A Bigger Grand Canyon, a 7.5 metre work consisting of sixty canvases, which now resides in the National Gallery of Australia.
Over his more than 60 years as a workaholic painter, “Painting pictures, that is my job” he said, Hockney would also explore working with Polaroids, fax machines, iPads, multiple cameras and the camera obscura.
Towards the end of his long life, (he died at age 88 in 2026), Hockney spent three months with the newly formed Lightroom on this immersive show.
On entering the cavernous bowels of Carriageworks, the viewer walks down an ever darkening passageway which opens up to a large room with large and comfy benches, or an upper level viewing platform (if you so choose).
The show opens on all four walls, with a home movie shot of Hockney and three friends driving through the San Gabriel Mountains to the sounds of Wagner.
The scene later changes to stained glass church windows, complete with shafts of light, setting the stage for what is to be revealed. Unlike some to the previous art immersive that often explored parts of paintings, or built them up, this show relies on stitching the images together in ingenious ways that retains their beauty.
Nowhere is this more evident that in the sequence showing Hockney’s notebooks, which has more than 100 opening in balletic precision around the four walls. The show is not without wit, as a cartoon figure zips across a wall carrying a sign End Business Soon.
Our guide in this show is Hockney, in his own words, always warm and engaging, as he demystifies the many processes that he used to create some of the most notable artwork in the last sixty years.
Another standout sequence in this hour-long show concentrates on Hockney’s many opera and theatre designs, which encompass A Rake’s Progress, The Magic Flute, Tristan and Isolde and Turandot.
Towards the end of his life he returns to where he started in nature, which he sums up by saying “You can’t be bored with nature.”
Working in synchronicity with the art works is the score by New York based classical minimalist Nico Muhly, whose multiple collaborations include Bjork, Antony and the Johnsons and Joanna Newsom.
The show ends with a reprise of the canyon driving sequence, and how Hockney relates to the straight and not so straight lines of roads in Los Angeles, while synchronising the drive to the climax of the music.
This impressive work of digital media relies on a linear storyline of about sixty minutes and attendees are advised to book via the hourly slots and get there early. You will be left with a new understanding of the breadth of Hockney’s work and a deep connection to the artist himself.
David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away) is one of the best ways to spend and hour or so over the holidays devised this year.
David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away)
Carriageworks (Bay 17), 245 Wilson Street, Eveleigh (Sydney)
On display: 22 October 2026 – 24 January 2027
Information and Bookings: www.carriageworks.com.au
Images: David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away) – photos by Justin Sutcliffe © David Hockney
Review: John Moyle