David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (Not Smaller & Further Away) – Review

David Hockney is one of the most influential and renowned British artists of all time – ‘Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away)’ is an immersive exhibit taking on the ambitious task of telling the story of his career in just 50 minutes. 

You may think that with only less than an hour the exhibit would struggle to fit all this in, but it has been meticulously curated and contains details of the most important periods of his life, such as the time he spent living in Los Angeles.  

Through his perspective it captures and explores Hockney’s creative process, in addition to exploring his relationships and interactions with the world around him. 

It was first held at the Lightroom gallery in London, and came to Aviva Studios last year. Following that success the exhibition returns to the venue as part of a trio of immersive experiences from Lightroom and Factory International being held at Aviva Studios this winter

Andrew Witherspoon, the marketing producer for the exhibition, is one of the many individuals who have been part of this long creative process and Hockney himself has been completely involved from the very beginning. 

Over a number of years, Hockney himself and his studio assistants worked together through the covid pandemic using scale models.

Hockney’s process is revealed in a cycle of six chapters featuring some of his most iconic images. An array of state-of-the-art projectors, which were picked out personally by Hockney as they were the only ones deemed adequately able to represent the brightness and vividness of his colours, loom overhead. 

Hockney has been a long-time advocate for embracing the use of art within technology, and this exhibit is a fantastic example of the way it can bring art to life in a way that transcends beyond the limitations of a traditional static canvas. 

After stepping inside the exhibit, you suddenly become transported; you’re no longer in Salford on a gloomy grey day – you’re simultaneously taken inside his mind and across the world, to the destinations which have inspired some of his most famous work.

The four walls, along with the floor, transform into many things throughout the course of the exhibition: a longboat, an opera theatre, and of course at one point, a gigantic swimming pool. 

The exhibit is narrated by Hockney himself, and the script is comprised of 60 years’ worth of interviews, edited together so seamlessly you would never even realise there may be decades between one word and the next. 

In one sentence you might be hearing some audio from an interview in 1980, and other audio from an interview we captured in 2021 stitched together.

His commentary is intertwined with an original score by American composer Nico Muhly which provides an orchestral ambience to the exhibit. 

One constant throughout Hockney’s career has been his lifelong fascination with nature and all its intricacies, and this message reiterates throughout the span of the exhibit. 

Hockney actively encourages the viewer to truly interrogate their surroundings -he completely engulfs the onlooker, and the enormous screens which and gigantic speakers leave no option for the viewer than to attentively digest his message. 

David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (Not Smaller & Further Away) is at Aviva Studios from 16 December 2025 to 11 January 2026. It is one of three large-scale 360° immersive experiences from Lightroom running in repertory at Aviva Studios this winter with alongside new shows VOGUE: Inventing the Runway and The Moonwalkers: A Journey With Tom Hanks.

Dog-friendly slots are on specific dates/times. See factoryinternational.org for details.