This is a collaborative post with Lightroom London and David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller and further away)
One of the world’s most acclaimed and popular living artists, David Hockney has created the launch show for Lightroom, London’s new home for spectacular artist-led shows which is equipped with the latest digital projection and audio technology.
Hockney uses the innovative venue to take the audience on a personal journey through his art, featuring iconic paintings alongside some rarely seen pieces and some newly created work. His life-long fascination with the possibilities of new media is given vibrant expression in a show that invites visitors to see the world through his eyes.
In a cycle of six themed chapters, with a specially composed score by Nico Muhly and a commentary by the artist himself, Hockney reveals his process to us. His voice is in our ears as we watch him experimenting with perspective, using photography as a way of ‘drawing with a camera’, capturing the passing of time in his polaroid collages and the joy of spring on his iPad, and showing us why only paint can properly convey the hugeness of the Grand Canyon. We join him on his audio-visual Wagner Drive, roaring up into the San Gabriel Mountains, and into the opera house by means of animated re-creations of his stage designs.
From LA to Yorkshire, and up to the present day in Normandy, the show is an unprecedented opportunity to spend time in the presence of one of the great popular geniuses of the art world still innovating, still creating beauty and awe.
The show is the result of three years’ close collaboration between David Hockney and the creators of Lightroom. It will be the first in a repertoire of original shows, made with leading artists and innovators, aspiring to be visually astonishing, alive with sound and rich in new perspectives.
The innovative showspace was designed by 59 Productions in close collaboration with Haworth Tompkins, who have designed the venue as a sister space to the award-winning Bridge Theatre. The generous foyer contains a café/bar run in collaboration with St John, a gift shop and seating in the foyer and outside on the square. The venue is open seven days a week throughout the day and on most evenings.
Lightroom’s David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away), is currently booking until Sunday 1st October 2023.
Shows run Monday to Sunday with evenings to 8.30pm and weekend hours have been extended to start at 9am. Discounted tickets are now available for families and there will be a number of relaxed, Sensory adapted, British sign language and captioned shows running, details of which can be found on the website. Additionally, £15 school rates will now be available and a Universal Credit Recipient Offer of £5 per ticket can be booked directly through the ticketing team on tickets@lightroom.uk, details of which can also be found on the website.