The London Original Print Fair (LOPF) returns this week, with a three day event taking over
Somerset House’s s sprawling Neoclassical buildings. This year the fair achieves a landmark: it’s 40th edition, and there are plenty of special celebrations planned, including artist talks with Chris Levine (Friday 21st March) and Stanley Donwood, discussing his collaborations with Thom Yorke (Sunday 23 March), and new editions being launched exclusively for the fair.
Founded in 1985 by a committee of eight print dealers, the London Original Print Fair first took place in the Royal Academy of Arts, where it ran every year until 2022 (with the exception of an online edition in 2020, during covid). The first edition had just sixteen exhibitors; in 2025, the fair welcomes fifty this year.
When LOPF began, the world, and the art world, was a vastly different place. They have helped forge an infrastructure around collecting printmaking and have helped a new generation discover an appreciation for the varied and diverse art form. As director Helen Rossyln says “I came into this because I love prints. So that is really our primary focus – getting other people to understand how wonderful prints are, and how you can have such fun collecting.”
