The London Original Print Fair reached its fortieth edition in 2025, with more than forty galleries, publishers and studios filling Somerset House with prints from six centuries.
The London Original Print Fair marked its 40th edition at Somerset House in Covent Garden from Thursday 20 to Sunday 23 March 2025.
Gordon Cooke founded the fair in 1985 with a committee of eight print dealers. They worked from home or small galleries and hoped a public event would find new buyers. The first fair took the Royal Academy’s old Diploma Galleries with 16 exhibitors.
Helen Rosslyn, who had specialised in prints at Christie’s, joined as director in 1987. The fair stayed at Burlington House until 2019. After the pandemic cancelled the 2020 fair, it settled in 2021 at Somerset House, the Royal Academy’s first London home.
It remains one of the longest-running art fairs in London, and it holds one subject: the original print, from woodcut to screenprint. An Old Master etching can hang beside a living artist’s new edition.
The 2025 edition brought more than 40 galleries, publishers and printmaking studios, with work spanning six centuries from Picasso, Matisse, Warhol and Hockney to Emin and Riley. Peter Blake, David Shrigley, Gavin Turk and Chris Levine launched new editions.
RAW Editions showed Red Carpet, a variable jigsaw woodcut Tom Hammick made for the anniversary.