David Hockney pictured at David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away) in 2023. This exhibition, plus one dedicated to his portraiture, are heading to Australia after the British artist died in June. Photograph: Justin Sutcliffe View image in fullscreen David Hockney pictured at David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away) in 2023. This exhibition, plus one dedicated to his portraiture, are heading to Australia after the British artist died in June. Photograph: Justin Sutcliffe David Hockney Who will make the bigger splash? Two blockbuster David Hockney exhibitions opening in Australia A immersive show made with the British artist before he died is headed to Sydney, at the same time as a Hockney portraiture exhibition at Canberra’s National Gallery
Sian Cain Mon 3 Aug 2026 02.00 CEST Share Prefer the Guardian on Google Two blockbuster exhibitions dedicated to the late David Hockney are opening in Australia later this year, months after the British artist’s death at the age of 88 .
The National Gallery of Australia in Canberra, home to the largest collection of Hockney’s work in Australia, will stage David Hockney: Portraits in Print from September to February. The exhibition will span more than 60 works made over 30 years and offers “an intimate view of his personal life, creative practice and deep engagement with portraiture”, the NGA said.
And from October to January, Carriageworks in Sydney is staging David Hockney: Bigger & Closer (not smaller & further away), an immersive exhibition created by Lightroom London with Hockney himself, who recorded narration that guides visitors through his processes and philosophy.
Bigger & Closer has been staged in London, Manchester, Shanghai and Seoul and visited by 650,000 people so far.
“David is there as your favourite uncle who takes you to an art gallery and says something insightful to you over your shoulder, points something out to you in a painting you would never have caught on your own,” said Richard Slaney, the CEO of Lightroom and producer of Bigger & Closer.
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Slaney wrote to Hockney to pitch the show in 2019 and continued to work with him on projects until a couple of weeks before his death in June.
Hockney spent months working on the show, dedicated to the point that “we’d have to politely ask him to leave sometimes”, said Slaney. “He treated this show like an artwork in its own right, which is a real honour. He would stand there describing what had happened with particular paintings and we said, this is what we want to hear. So we went through thousands of hours of archive interviews and had him record new lines.
“I’m sure people were moved by the show before he passed anyway, because hearing him explain things is just lovely. But even more so now. We’re really honoured that his studio and his family are really supportive of the show continuing out there as a legacy piece.”
View image in fullscreen David Hockney: Bigger & Closer at Lightroom in London. Photograph: Justin Sutcliffe Hockney’s career spanned six decades. He made his name as a pop artist during the swinging 60s and was perhaps best known for his paintings of swimming pools that helped define the Los Angeles aesthetic, such as A Bigger Splash and Portrait of an Artist (Pool With Two Figures). He also produced portraits using photo-collage, experimented with abstract landscape painting and, in later life, painted works on his iPad an…