The London Original Print Fair returned to Somerset House for its forty-first edition in 2026, and its acquisitions award went to two Paula Rego etchings.
Print collectors gathered at Somerset House in Covent Garden from Thursday 14 to Sunday 17 May 2026 for the 41st London Original Print Fair.
Sixteen exhibitors showed at the first fair in 1985, in the Royal Academy’s old Diploma Galleries. Print dealers then mostly sold from home, and art fairs were scarce.
The founder, Gordon Cooke, secured the room by calling on the Academy’s exhibitions secretary, Norman Rosenthal. The fair stayed at the Academy until 2019 and has been at Somerset House since 2021.
The Hallett Independent Acquisitions Award, launched in 2016, funds a UK museum or gallery to buy prints at the fair. In 2026 it went to The Burton at Bideford, whose curator chose two 1989 Paula Rego etchings from RAW Editions. Mary, Mary Quite Contrary I and Little Miss Muffet I serve its learning programme.
More than 40 exhibitors took part. The fair showed Unlimited, the series Jeremy Fry, of the West Country chocolate family, made in the 1960s with a group of contemporary artists.
Thames & Hudson’s Ken Kiff catalogue raisonné launched beside an exhibition of his prints from first-time exhibitors Hales. Counter Editions presented a new collection of Tracey Emin prints.