East London Printmakers

East London Printmakers’ (ELP) bi-annual open studio events are great to find wonderful and original printed artworks for sale at an affordable price. The events also offer an opportunity to gain insight into the vast range of artistic printing techniques. All the prints on show such as woodcut, etching, aquatint, drypoint, lino, collograph and screenprints, are made right there at the studio.

ELP is an artist run, not-for-profit organisation that opened in 1998 by a collective of about ten artists with a passion for printmaking. They aimed to provide professional and affordable printmaking facilities for artists and designers and also to create opportunities for them to collaborate, discuss and exhibit their work. In an industrial building – a former clothing factory - on Mare Street, ELP found the ideal space. They installed a few different print presses in one small room and set off printing.

Over time the studio started offering workshops, exhibitions and other events with the community. That brought in some money that could be used to buy more equipment and ELP was able to gradually expand.

Today, the organisation occupies two large, light-flooded rooms full of printmaking equipment. The back room houses everything needed for etching and relief printing. The salient items there are the beautiful, sturdy iron Albion presses (see image). The second space contains several vacuum tables for screenprinting and a large exposure unit used for photo-silkscreens.

ELP now has 46 key-holders – artists who use the studio in exchange for a monthly fee and responsibilities in helping to run the organisation - and about 250 affiliated members. 

For anyone with some printmaking experience, ELP offers open access sessions. Those who haven’t got the knowledge yet or want to improve their technique can choose from a wide range of day and evening classes.

While the atmosphere in the studio is a relaxed and friendly bustle with artists absorbed in different stages of their work, there is a big behind-the-scenes thing going on there. Like many other places in the area, the studio has recently come under massive financial pressure and ELP see themselves forced to look for new premises.

“With the area changing as it is, we come to a point where there isn’t a calling for us here anymore,” says studio coordinator Susan Clark. “Lots of people from the creative sector are pushed out of the area, which makes ELP’s presence here redundant. We need to follow these people and find the next creative hub,” she explains.  

That will still be in East London, she promises. “We want to be in traveling distance of everyone we got here at the moment.”

We wish ELP good luck in finding a great new space and hope that it won’t be too far from here.

For a full listing of classes and events see: https://www.eastlondonprintmakers.co.uk

This article appeared in the August 2016 issue of LoveEast Magazine