In 2015, Mike Allison started a series of prints which he optimistically entitled 100 Views of Birmingham. Intended as a celebration of the city, Mike’s series explores architecture, viewpoint and light in the medium of original print. The majority of the series are reduction linocuts; however a wide range of printmaking techniques have been used across the series, including engraving, monotype, woodcut, drypoint and screen-printing. The views are printed in small editions to enable multi layered and complex original prints.
Alongside the city of Birmingham, the series was inspired by Hiroshige’s 100 Famous Views of Edo (now Tokyo); a series of ukiyo-e woodcuts created in the 1850s. The fresh and unusual compositions employed by Hiroshige have particularly influenced Mike as he journeys through the city of Birmingham looking for potential views.
Mike studied at Winchester School of Art, graduating in 1992 and completed an MA at De Montfort University in Leicester in 2005. The series was made entirely at the Ruskin Glasshouse printmaking workshop in Stourbridge.
About Ironbridge Fine Arts
Ironbridge Fine Arts Gallery, nestled in the historic Merrythought Village, is a family-run gallery committed to celebrating and elevating art across Shropshire and the UK. Through a dynamic program of exhibitions, we provide a platform for renowned and emerging artists alike, including our own family of talented creators. Each exhibition is thoughtfully curated to showcase a wide range of styles and media, creating an inspiring space for visitors to engage with exceptional art. We look forward to welcoming you to the Gallery and sharing all the work we have on display!
Printmaking, Architecture and the Poetry of Place
Printmaker Mike Allison will be exhibiting as part of our Winter Exhibition 2027. His long-running series, 100 Views of Birmingham, is a celebration of the city’s architecture, streetscapes, and light, capturing its character through original print. Predominantly created as reduction linocuts, the series also embraces a diverse array of printmaking techniques—including engraving, woodcut, drypoint, monotype, and screen-printing—each employed to build layered, intricate compositions that balance precision with expressive gesture. Small editions allow for careful attention to detail, resulting in prints that are both complex and accessible, inviting sustained engagement from the viewer.
Central to Allison’s practice is a fascination with viewpoint, composition, and the interplay of light and shadow. The 100 Views of Birmingham series was inspired in part by Hiroshige’s 100 Famous Views of Edo, whose innovative framing and visual storytelling inform Allison’s own explorations of urban space. Moving through Birmingham, he seeks out perspectives that reveal both the familiar and the overlooked, translating the city’s rhythms and structures into prints that are at once observational, inventive, and evocative.
Allison studied at Winchester School of Art, graduating in 1992, and completed an MA at De Montfort University in 2005. His work for this series was created entirely at the Ruskin Glasshouse printmaking workshop in Stourbridge, a space that has enabled the experimentation and technical refinement so integral to his practice. Over time, his prints have come to articulate not only a personal vision of place but also a dialogue between historical reference, architectural form, and contemporary life.
The Winter Exhibition 2027 will present a selection of Allison’s 100 Views of Birmingham, offering audiences the opportunity to explore a city through the meticulous, inventive, and deeply considered lens of one of its most observant printmakers. His work celebrates the visual poetry of the everyday and the enduring possibilities of print as a medium for exploration, reflection, and artistic discovery.
