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The Imprimo printmaking studio, founded in 1987, is practically synonymous to modern Finnish color graphics as we know it today. The studio was not however born out of a void.

The Imprimo artists, born mostly in the 1950s, were part of the vanguard who introduced a radical change in Finnish printmaking. Color entered the picture with a whole new volume, giving grounds to speak about graphic art with the same terms of expression as in painting art. At the same time, the size of the prints changed; even the last obstacles for printmaking to become a technique of unlimited expression, same as any other, were brought down. In fact it was this
change that put an end to the age-old practice of speaking about printmaking always and often only as a technique – as if the content of printmaking were, compared to other techniques, somehow especially susceptible to its technical marginal conditions.

Aside from esthetic questions, one should also point out that along with Imprimo the production processes of printmaking underwent a major change. The studio was, first of all, artist-led, which created good conditions for other artist colleagues to try out their wings in the fascinating world of color lithography. The Imprimo group knew how to approach artistic problems in a way that enabled many sculptors and painters to take their first steps in the production of graphic prints. Many artists who had earned their spurs using other techniques created their first, and in some cases last, prints through Imprimo.