Ironbridge Fine Arts puts world printmaking on show in the Gorge

In a former iron foundry building in the Ironbridge Gorge, a family business has made the town a meeting point for printmakers from across the world. Ironbridge Fine Arts is a gallery, a working print studio and the home of Gunning etching presses, which the family has designed, built and used since 1980.

The gallery says its building is one of four iron foundry buildings put up in the 1890s by the Coalbrookdale Company, the firm founded by Abraham Darby in 1709. It shows work by Shropshire artists alongside invited guests from further afield.

The big event of 2026 was the Worldwide Printmaking Exhibition, which brought together more than 400 works by selected artists from around the world. It opened with a private view and prize announcements on 4 July and ran until 26 September, with free admission throughout.

The show covered the full range of the craft, from finely detailed etching and mezzotint to relief printing, monotype, screenprint, lithography, photogravure and mixed media. Selected UK artists were shown in the gallery as well as in the online exhibition and the printed catalogue.

Creative director Sarah Morris thanked everyone who entered. "The quality, diversity, and ambition of the entries received continue to reinforce the strength and vitality of contemporary printmaking on an international level," she said, adding that the competition aims to connect "a global community of artists through both traditional and contemporary approaches to the medium."

Earlier in the year the Spring Exhibition featured six artists, among them Linda Barlow, whose abstract work draws on time in Iceland, Shetland and the Irish coast, and Dave Gunning, with steel-etched plates and intaglio etchings. Jacqui Dodds, Rob Leckey, Rob Pountney and Austė Skardžiukaitė-Kabašinskienė completed the line-up.

Printmaker Jenny Mason-Gunning also runs tailored workshops in the studio, for complete beginners as well as experienced artists. They can cover etching, aquatint, photogravure, mezzotint, drypoint, collagraph, lino cutting, woodcut and reduction printing, and can be booked for an hour or for several days.

For current exhibitions, workshops and opening times, visit ironbridgefinearts.co.uk.