Art Licks Weekend returns for a third year to celebrate the best emerging artists, galleries and projects working in the borders of London’s art scene
With 90 participating spaces, Art Licks Weekend occupies areas from Hackney to Peckham Rye including galleries, libraries, and even living rooms
Back for its third year, the annual Art Licks Weekend celebrates the contribution that emerging artists and grassroots projects make to the cultural life of London. Throughout the three-day festival, artist-run projects, curatorial collectives and young galleries across the city open up their spaces for the public, with free events and exhibitions of young artists’ work.
Founded by writer and curator Holly Willats in 2013, Art Licks Weekend offers a positive outlet for young artists and curators to build new networks and relationships with audiences, at a critical early point in their careers. Art Licks champions the emerging artists participating in the as the opinion formers of the capital’s cultural future and believes they should be supported as such, allowing for innovative and forward-thinking practices and ideas to develop.
The Weekend is free of charge, opening the doors to galleries and artists’ spaces to the public and introducing a range of arts events and activities. Engaging with younger visitors, Art Licks Weekend operates an education programme and works with local school groups to improve their access to the arts.
In 2014, over 70 spaces took part in the Art Licks Weekend, showing the work of over 200 artists collectively. The festival saw over 9,000 visits – 60% of which said they had never visited the galleries and spaces before and 92% said they would visit again independently. For 2015, Art Licks received an overwhelming amount of applications for the festival and is excited to announce that it has confirmed 90 participating spaces working with over 300 artists collectively; demonstrating how Art Licks continues to represent key grassroots activity, and its role in bringing it to a wider audience to experience.
Art Licks Weekend runs from Friday 2 – Sunday 4 October 2015 with all galleries & spaces open daily from 12-6pm, with an Opening Night on Thursday 1 October, 6-9pm. The event occupies areas across East and South London, where younger and non-commercial galleries predominantly operate including Bermondsey, Bethnal Green, Deptford, Elephant & Castle, Hackney, Hackney Wick, Haggerston, New Cross and Peckham.
Additional Programme
Festival Tours: Art Licks tours take groups around a selection of artist-run spaces and projects in: Hackney, New Cross/Deptford and Peckham
Radio Anti: Commissioned for the festival, Radio Anti will broadcast a daily programme of interviews, performances and music for the duration of the Art Licks Weekend
Online Project: Curatorial project Desktop Residency have invited four artists to present works available for visitors to download off the festival website and have as their desktop wallpapers. Part of an online group show by artists: Clémence de La Tour du Pin, Doug Bowen, Lucia Quevedo and Simon Boase.
Artist moving image programme, run in partnership with LUX and Flat Time House, including a film screening event at the Peckham Liberal Club
Galleries, spaces and projects taking part in 2015 include:
A—Z @ Four Quarters A-Side B-Side Gallery Aalto Projects, Ali Baba, Amatorska, Amersham Arms, APT Gallery, Arcadia Missa, arebyte gallery, Art Barter @ Studio Colbert ASC Gallery, Assembly Point, Back Room Gallery BalinHouseProjects Banner Repeater, Bede House, Block 336, CaW, Cheap Drinks Van Chisenhale Studios Clapham Orangery Conduire, DKUK Salon, DOLPH, Doomed Gallery, East London Printmakers Five Years, Flat i, fourFOLD, hARTslane, Hotel Elephant HOUSERULES, Ingelow Gallery, Ingrid, Kingsgate Project Space Kiosk, L I M B O, Ladette Space, Lewisham Arthouse, London Sculpture Workshop Lychee One, Martin’s Place, Menier Gallery Millington|Marriott, MMX Gallery, NEW STUDIO, news of the world nowshowspace, Oros Orob, Pangaea Sculptors’ Centre Eternal Bronzer, Pomeroy TBK, RARA, RAUMX London, Res., Safehouse 1, Safehouse 2, Save the Date café Schwartz Gallery, SE8, Space In Between, St Augustine’s Tower Standpoint, The Ballad of Peckham Rye The Function Room, The NINES, Transition Gallery, Tremolo Projects, Turf Projects, Unit 3 Projects UnitSixStudio, VERBureau, Viva, Vulpes Vulpes, AltMFA, Why Don’t You…? HQ, 395, 12ø Project Space, 21 Willowbrook Road, 38b, 42 Stairs
Participating artists and collectives include:
Uliana Apatina, ARKA Group, Gabriel Birch, Hannah Black, Elena Colman, Philip Ewe, Katie Goodwin, Lewis den Hertog, Joey Holder, Emma Hunt, Lucy Joyce, Paul Kindersley, Lawrence Lek, Sophie Mackfall, Tamarin Norwood, Berry Patten, Anna Chrystal Stephens
Free to the public, Art Licks casts a spotlight on the best young and emerging artists and collectives operating in these thriving creative communities. The event runs from Friday 2 – Sunday 4 October 2015 with all galleries and spaces open daily from 12 – 6pm. Opening night Thursday 1 October 6-9 pm