I visited on a Tuesday afternoon a couple of months after the exhibition launched and it was very busy. The 50 minute-long film is on a loop, meaning you can join at any time, and visitors arrive and leave throughout. The atmosphere is very relaxed, with small children wandering around, people standing, sitting and lying back on the floor – I found watching visitors’ reactions almost as interesting as the show itself.

The film is divided into six ‘chapters,’ travelling through Hockney’s life from LA to Yorkshire, and finishing with paintings of his present day home in Normandy, France. For me, the section about his early life and his gleeful reaction to Los Angeles were the most exciting, with the huge projections of his swimming pool paintings working particularly well. There’s also a brilliant section of film with Hockney driving through the Santa Monica hills playing a soundtrack of Wagner with the bends in the road carefully timed to match the music. It’s thrilling and feels as though you’re in the car with him.

Some of the reviews of the exhibition have been a bit sniffy, with critics arguing that it lacks passion and is not ‘real art’.

For me that misses the point – of course it’s a different experience to viewing Hockney’s paintings in real life, but I found it visually spectacular and his commentary made it enlightening and surprisingly moving.

Something about hearing the artist talk about his life, while watching his art through the years play out in such an immersive setting really stayed with me, and I found myself resolving to look at the world more closely, and appreciate the beauty all around.

• David Hockney Bigger & Closer (not Smaller and Further Away) runs from 22 February to 1 October 2023

• The exhibition takes place at the newly-launched Lightroom in Lewis Cubitt Square, London, N1C 4DY

• Lightroom is a joint venture between London Theatre Company and design studio and production company 59 Productions

• Lightroom was designed by architects Haworth Tompkins, who envisioned the venue as a sister space to the recently opened Bridge Theatre in London’s Southwark

• The show was created by David Hockney & Lightroom and designed by 59 Productions

• Tickets are from £25 for adults and from £15 for students • Dwell time is 50 minutes

Launched in February 2023, new interactive art space Lightroom promises to offer ‘spectacular artist-led shows”. It’s a joint venture between London Theatre Company and design studio and production company 59 Productions, backed by a group of investors led by Sir Leonard Blavatnik who is represented by Danny Cohen, president of Access Entertainment; and Michael Sherwood, former co-CEO of Goldman Sachs International. 

Future shows haven’t yet been announced, but the operators promise the Hockney show will be the first in “a repertoire of original shows, made with leading artists and innovators.”