25 July - 10 October, 2026

Northern Print is proud to present a selection of recently acquired works from the distinguished printmaking studio - Studio Prints, London.

Studio Prints, set up by Dorothea Wight after graduating, and run by her and her husband
Marc Balakjian, was at the heart of printmaking in London for over 40 years.

Printmaking studios play a crucial, but often unseen role for so many artists. Studio Prints
provided the skills and expertise for so many artists, often painters with little or no printmaking experience, to make limited edition original prints.

The heyday of Studio Prints coincided with an explosion of interest in original prints by galleries, dealers and artists. Studio Prints most highly regarded ongoing collaboration was with Lucian Freud, alongside others such as Frank Auerbach, Leon Kossoff, Celia Paul and Stephen Conroy – all represented by Marlborough Fine Art at the time.

Studio Prints also worked with established printmakers, who had the skills to produce their own etchings, but not the capacity or perhaps inclination to edition these in the numbers required for the art market at that time.

Northern Print member, Donald Wilkinson was one such artist whose work was often editioned by Dorothea Wright once the artist had produced the final proofs in his own studio. At the heart of Studio Prints was the dedication and generosity of Dorothea and Marc. Marc was a regular visitor and tutor at Northern Print sharing his knowledge of mezzotint and editioning with our artists, and both Dorothea and Marc were hugely supportive of Northern Print during the inaugural International Print Biennale in 2009.

This exhibition presents a small selection of the works in Northern Print’s collection. The
mezzotints by Marc and the etchings by Dorothea are the final editioned images – they
are signed and include the edition number written in pencil below the image. All the other
works are known as proofs. These are not necessarily the final image but shows a stage of
the making process. They are unsigned and, in some cases, show written notes – such as the red pen on Freud’s ‘Eli’ saying RSR Heat – a type of printing ink produced by Charbonnel as a highly viscous carbon-black etching ink with the instruction to use a hot plate for inking.

In some instances, Northern Print owns multiple versions of an image – such as those included in this exhibition by Celia Paul and Leon Kossoff. We have included some of these in the exhibition to allow for comparisons as the images have developed. For example, a change in colour or tone of the paper or ink, an added area of tone, or in the case of Celia Paul’s work - the copper plate being cut down to focus on the figures.
Marc and Dorothea were great friends of Birgit Skiöld and through their introductions the
remaining archive of The Birgit Skiöld Memorial Trust was gifted to Northern Print.
We remain truly grateful for everything they gave to Northern Print and are honoured to be able to include works by both Dorothea and Marc in this exhibition.

Top left: Lucian Freud, Eli. Top right: plate detail

Accepted under the Cultural Gifts Scheme by HM Government from the archive of Studio Prints gifted by the Balakjian family and allocated to Northern Print, 2024.