At the invitation of Art Licks Director Holly Willats, Matt Williams, Curator at the ICA London, introduces the first Art Licks Weekend and highlights some of the projects taking place during this new festival showcasing the work of pioneering young artists, curators, galleries and project spaces in London...

Art Licks Weekend
Opening night: Thursday 3 October, 6-9pm 
4-6 October 2013 Daily, 11am-6pm
www.artlicksweekend.com
www.artlicks.com 
The Art Licks Weekend is free to all.

Since its launch in 2010 Art Licks has steadily developed a growing legion of followers, including myself, who rely upon the magazine to provide an insight and point of access to emerging artists exhibiting and practicing within London today. The inaugural Art Licks Weekend further reinforces its position as an ambitious, committed and reliable platform for artists to present their work.

Given the impressive volume of events and exhibitions taking place over the weekend it was a genuine challenge to recommend a “top five” or suggest any sort of hierarchical order.  Instead I have selected in alphabetical order the following events and exhibitions, both physical and virtual that I have a personal interest in, whether it is because of the subject matter or simply that I like the work of the artists involved and/or confident in the curatorial programme of the venue.

 Matt Williams
Curator, ICA London*

Art Licks Weekend Digital Programme
Il Bardo di Timperley
Run in partnership with bubblebyte.org and hosted on the Art Licks Weekend website, this project showcases online works by 16 international artists. Starting from
 9 September, moving image artworks have been added to the website every few days, slowly revealing a much larger, collaborative work in the form of a moving image collage. The final collage is exhibited in its entirety during the Art Licks Weekend.
Participating artists:
Laura Buckley, Rhys Coren, Constant Dullaart, Paul Flannery,Warren Garland, Riley Harmon,
Tom Hobson, Candice Jacobs, Angelo Plessas, Tom Pounder, Nicolas Sassoon, Laurel Schwulst, Tim Steer, Oliver Sutherland, LewisTeagueWright, LanceWakeling
See the project: www.artlicksweekend.com/il-bardo-di-timperley
Funded by Outset Contemporary Art Fund

Banner Repeater
UNPUBLISH: OUTSOURCED
Exhibition. Thursday, 6–9pm, Friday–Sunday 11am–6pm
or-bits.com presents a show with graphic designer / artist Tara Kelton&co-director of Museum of Vestigial Desire Prayas Abhinav.

www.or-bits.com

UNPUBLISH: OUTSOURCED – Curators’ Talk
Event. Sunday 2–3pm
Marialaura Ghidini of or-bits.com and Ami Clarke of Banner Repeater in conversation.
www.or-bits.com
Platform 1, Hackney Downs Rail Station, Dalston Lane, London E8 1LA 
www.bannerrepeater.org

Blacksmith and Toffee Maker
Superlative TV: Apathy Transmis3s3ion

Exhibition. Thursday 6–9pm, Friday–Sunday 11am–6pm 
SuperlativeTV examines apathy as a powerful force of environmental, political and cultural change.
292 St John Street, London EC1V 4PA 
www.superlativetv.com

Desktop Residency at Peckham Pelican
Almost a year of rectangles
Exhibition. Thursday 6–9pm, Friday–Sunday 11am–6pm
The culmination of almost the first year of Desktop Residency, an online curatorial project by Barnie Page and John Henry Newton.

www.desktopresidency.com
92 Peckham Road, London SE15 5PY
www.thepeckhampelican.co.uk

French Riviera
Europa Exhibition.
Thursday 6–9pm, Friday–Sunday 11am–6pm
The debut solo exhibition from award-winning artist and recent Royal College of Art graduate Nicholas Pankhurst.
309 Bethnal Green Road, London E2 6AH
www.frenchriviera1988.com

PLAZAPLAZA
Lucy Beech
Exhibition. Thursday 6–9pm, Friday–Sunday 11am–6pm
Work by Lucy Beech referencing emotional capital and the notion that female empowerment can be adopted as a potent branding tool.

70 County Street, London SE1 4AD

Wine & Spirits
Exhibition. Thursday 6–9pm, Friday–Sunday 11am–6pm
Rachel Reupke tests the potential and limitations of the digital image. From webcam films to the recreation of popular stock footage.
258 Cambridge Heath Road, London E2 9DA
www.cellprojects.org

*Matt Williams is the Curator at the ICA. He studied Fine Art at Leeds Metropolitan University before completing an MA in Curating Contemporary Art at the Royal College of Art, London. From 2008 to 2011 he was Curator of the International Project Space, Birmingham. During his tenure at the IPS, Williams worked with a number of emerging and established artists including Ed Atkins, Simon Denny, Michaela Eichwald, Melanie Gilligan, Michael Krebber, Oscar Tuazon, Hannah Sawtell, Josef Strau and Emily Wardill. He co-edited the annual publication NOVEL that focused on artists’ writing, texts and poetry. Since his appointment at the ICA he has worked on a number of exhibitions including the group showRemote Control and solo presentations by Bernadette Corporation, Bjarne Melgaard and Lutz Bacher.