2023 Art To See – London Always Out & About – David Hockney ‘Bigger and Closer’, (not smaller and further)

David Hockney ‘Bigger and Closer’, (not smaller and further) Lightroom Kings Cross, London February 22- June 4, 2023

The Lightroom is a new four-story exhibition space made for immersive art. The new home for spectacular artist led shows. We can privatize, of course!

Hockney will exhibit his life’s work broken up into six chapters with a voiceover from Hockney himself and an original score composed by Nico Muly. His paintings are thrown onto huge screens immersing the audience in his colorful worlds like never seen before. Hockney will use 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.

Using large-scale projection in a remarkable new space, David Hockney takes us on a personal journey through sixty years of his art. Lightroom’s vast walls and revolutionary sound system enable us to experience the world through Hockney’s eyes. His life-long fascination with the possibilities of new media is given vibrant expression in a show that invites us to look more closely, more truly and more joyously.

In a cycle of six themed chapters and a commentary by the artist himself, Hockney reveals his process. 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.

Located just an 8-minute walk from King’s Cross station, Lightroom joins the wonderful range of shops and restaurants of Coal Drops Yard to create the perfect day or night out.

2023 Art to See – Tartan, V&A Dundee, London


2023 Art to See – Tartan, V&A Dundee, London Opens 1st April

A radical new look at one of the world’s best-known fabrics. The exhibition explores the history and global story of Tartan. It goes beyond the Scottish Highlands and investigates how this woven pattern has influenced architecture, fashion, art, film and products around the world.

Tartan celebrates the global story of a unique pattern, and how the rules of the grid have inspired creativity from the everyday to the sublime.

Cheddar Gorgeous in a suit designed by Liquorice Black, 2017 Courtesy of V&A

This must-see exhibition tells this story through more than 300 objects including iconic examples of fashion, architecture, product design, film, performance and fine art. Tartan is a patterned cloth consisting of criss-crossed, horizontal and vertical bands in multiple colours. Tartans originated in woven wool, but now they are made in other materials. Tartan is particularly associated with Scotland, as Scottish kilts almost always have tartan patterns.

Picasso on Tartan, Fife Arms

TARTAN has connected communities worldwide, a cloth of unity and dissent, inclusivity and diversity, ritual and rebellion, both adored and derided. Inspiring great works of art, as well as playful and provocative design, it has a complex, rich and sometimes painful history.

An extravagant, exuberant experience featuring loans from around the world, including Chanel, Dior, Vivienne Westwood, McQueen, Tate, V&A, National Museums of Scotland, Fashion Museum Bath, the Highland Folk Museum and many more. The exhibition also incorporates ‘the People’s Tartan’ – a changing selection of objects owned and sent in by the public who responded to our appeal to share your tartan treasures. For several centuries, tartan remained part of the everyday garb of the Highlander. Whilst tartan was worn in other parts of Scotland, it was in the Highlands that its development continued and so it became synonymous with the symbol of clan kinship.

This is the first major exhibition curated by V&A Dundee, with Jonathan Faiers of the University of Southampton, and celebrates the 5th anniversary in 2023.