The London Original Print Fair is a long-established fixture in the art calendar and brings together 53 of the world's most renowned print dealers resulting in an outstanding display of graphic work.

This year, the fair will run from April 23-27 at the Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington Gardens, London.

Original prints are not copies or reproductions, therefore the fair provides a brilliant opportunity to buy an original work of art by a major artist, without having to break the bank. From masterpieces and rarities to the latest new editions, the majority of prints at the fair are under £5,000 and participating dealers are happy to inform the novice buyer.

Art has never been more popular. There are over 42 million visits to museums and galleries each year, more than the attendance at Premiership and league football matches. In London alone visits have risen by 86 per cent in the past five years. The London Original Print Fair will showcase work by Antony Gormley, Louise Bourgeois, Andy Warhol and Georg Baselitz, all of whom have had blockbuster exhibitions in the UK in the past year.

Several exhibitors will be launching new prints at the fair this year. Paragon Press will show new work by Georg Baselitz: Mantel; Rute; Der Hirte; Das Haus and Partisan, from Remix, a series of five woodcuts, as well as new prints by Anish Kapoor. Hilary and Georgie Gerrish in association with David Dawson will be bringing a major collection of prints and related drawings by Andy Warhol, including well-known sixties icons such as the Marilyns, the menacing Electric Chairs of the seventies alongside rare pieces from the eighties inspired by the masterpieces of Edvard Munch.

The strength of the contemporary market continues to grow and this is reflected in the outstanding range of contemporary exhibitors at the fair. TAG Fine Arts, exhibiting for the first time this year, will be showing new prints by Robert Ryan, whose distinctive paper cut outs are hugely popular. His work has appeared in Vogue as well as on book and record covers. It has also decorated the windows of Liberty.

lan Cristea Gallery will be presenting recent works by Michael Craig-Martin. Among them is the 2001 Intimate Relations series- three large screen prints entitled Intimate Relations: Sunglasses, Safety Pin and Handcuffs. The pieces are typical of Craig-Martin’s recent style and subject matter, depicting everyday household objects. Alan Cristea Gallery will also show new work by Julian Opie and Boo Ritson.

This year, Osborne Samuel will be devoting their stand to a one-man show of large new screen prints by Antony Gormley. The prints include Sympathetic Field I, an edition of 40 lithographs bearing the hallmarks of Gormley’s work, being both monumental and figurative. Gormley has recently been short-listed for the next commissioned piece to go on the fourth plinth in Trafalgar Square.

Other new contemporary print publishers and dealers this year are Visconti Fine Art, whose directors have been instrumental in running the Ljubljiana Print Biennale, Stoney Road Press from Dublin, Thomas Kreuzer Gallery from Heimbach in Germany, and Dolan/Maxwell from Philadelphia, USA, who will be showing new work by contemporary British and American artists. The Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers will also be taking a stand at the Fair for the first time.

The House of Fairytales, an innovative art-based children’s education project, will be exhibiting a limited edition portfolio of prints by international cutting-edge artists, including Peter Blake, Rachel Whiteread and Gavin Turk, to raise funds for their education programmes. The prints, inspired by the narrative of fairytales, will be produced in a variety of techniques by some of the best print studios in the UK, including Pauper’s Press.

Exciting new additions in other fields include Jan Johnson, a dealer of long-standing repute based in Montreal and specialising in Old Master and Modern prints and Californian-based dealer, Catherine Burns who specialises in American and European 19th and 20th–century prints. Much of her stock will complement the work on show at the forthcoming British Museum exhibition The American Scene, including The Cat Boat by Edward Hopper.

Although modern and contemporary prints predominate, Old Master prints are integral to the fair, the success of which is, in part, due to the range of work on show. Prints by artists including Rembrandt and Dürer are highly sought-after by collectors. Christopher Mendez will be showing a rare example of the complete series of 24 etchings made by Rembrandt's contemporary Jacques Callot depicting pairs of Commedia dell’arte figures.