An Immersive, 360-Degree David Hockney Exhibition Is Coming to Carriageworks

David Hockney passed away in June of this year, just weeks before his 89th birthday. Among the most influential British artists of the past 100 years, Hockney’s career spanned more than seven decades. His innovative portraits, alongside his famous California pool paintings, reset the parameters of figurative painting – he was also ahead of the curve in embracing technology, using iPhones and iPads as legitimate artistic tools long before most artists.

This October, the industrial sheds of Carriageworks will transform into David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away), a monumental production from Lightroom London. Premiering in London in 2023, the immersive show surrounds audiences with 360-degree projections of nearly 250 works spanning Hockney’s career.

The show’s Australian debut follows sold-out runs in Manchester, Shanghai and Seoul, drawing more than 650,000 visitors worldwide.

Six themed chapters unfold against an original score by acclaimed American composer Nico Muhly. Hockney narrates the production himself, guiding audiences through his creative process and reflecting on decades of artistic experimentation. He discusses perspective, the way paint can appear to bend the rules of optics, his pioneering use of photography and his paintings of the Grand Canyon.

More than three years in the making, the production was developed in close collaboration with Hockney himself, and features 1408 loudspeakers and 28 projectors.

“Four years ago, I stood in the still unfinished Lightroom in London’s King’s Cross as the project’s CEO, Richard Slaney, told me about their dream of working with the world’s finest artists, designers and musicians to create a new kind of storytelling,” Carriageworks CEO Fergus Linehan said in a statement. “Their first port of call was the incomparable David Hockney, an artist whose insatiable appetite for innovation was matched by the dazzling possibilities of this completely new type of venue.

“Little did we know that, just a few months before we finally realised this glorious project in Sydney, David Hockney would leave us. Hockney’s work sits in our imagination in ways that feel deeply familiar to Sydneysiders: deep blue waters, bright green foliage and shimmering bodies.”

You’ll also see videos of Hockney’s famous “Wagner drives”, where he would take friends on drives through Malibu Canyon, the Santa Monica Mountains or the San Gabriel Mountains while loudly playing the German composer’s orchestral music. Plus, get a look at the many stage sets he designed for operas during the 1980s.

“[It’s] a chance to enter this world in the most visceral of ways,” Linehan says. “And to celebrate an artist who left us with the simplest and most profound of mottos: ‘Love Life’.”

The show also coincides with the opening of a major Hockney exhibition at Canberra’s National Gallery, titled David Hockney: Portraits in Print, featuring more than 60 portraiture works made over 30 years.

David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away) runs from October 22 until January 24, 2026. Tickets are on sale now.