Brian Maguire’s painting practice is driven by the struggle against inequality and violence, and the pursuit of justice. Compelled towards the raw realities of human conflict, Maguire approaches painting foremost as an act of solidarity, rehumanising his subjects and recentring the narratives of the disenfranchised. Social engagement plays a central role, leading him to work closely and interactively with refugees, survivors of warzones, incarcerated peoples, and local newsrooms in locations including Sudan, Syria, São Paulo and Ciudad Juárez. This subject-led approach requires negotiating an exchange, establishing a method of working that attempts to “repay the debt” to its subjects. Maguire’s direct observation of conflict zones puts his practice adjacent to forms of war reporting or photojournalism, but while his artworks might begin as acts of bearing witness, his task in the studio is to transform his testimony into blisteringly powerful works of art. There is a resulting tension between the raw and visceral nature of Maguire’s subject matter and the seductive, illusory nature of painting itself. Rather than abandoning aestheticism, Maguire uses painterly skill, surface and texture to draw us into an uncomfortable relationship in which ethical vision functions as part of the poetic imagination, resituating art in the concrete social structures from which it is so often removed.
In 2018, Kerlin Gallery and Fergus McCaffrey published the Brian Maguire monograph, an expansive publication which presents over 30 years of work and features texts by Donald Kuspitt, Thomas McEvilley, Gavin Delahunty, and Ed Vulliamy.
Brian Maguire lives and works in Dublin and Paris.
Aleppo 4, 2017
acrylic on linen
200 x 400 cm / 78.7 x 157.5 in
Brian Maguire, La Grande Illusion
Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin
3 October 2024 – 23 March 2025
Brian Maguire’s major exhibition “La Grande Illusion” is structured and distilled in ways that reveal how the artist has represented the fragility of human rights and how he has persistently responded to societal injustices and their legacies. Focusing on a period of intense productivity for the artist, 2007–2024, it appraises his activism in human rights and his efforts to document the shape-shifting nature of war with its far-reaching impact on the poor and our environment.
Maguire presents an expanded view of war- seen as a constant cycle of corrupted power and death – it encompasses capital, class, gender, and post-colonial legacies. Intimate anduncompromising, his paintings form a demand for social justice and are an act of solidarity with families and communities. The exhibition will draw on seven pioneering and interconnected bodies of work from projects in Juárez, Mexico (2012–15), the Mediterranean (2016), Aleppo (2017), South Sudan (2018), the Amazon (2022), Arizona (2022) and Brazil (2022-23).
Testimony is integral to understanding violence, human rights violations and state abuse. In turning towards the plight of those erased by media or state institutions, the artist reminds us why painting matters. “In painting, ‘the invisible becomes visible’, he explains. It is a transformative frame, placing the experiences you encounter on the doorstep of power and in a continuum with history, mythology and the tragedies of existence.” Like education for Paulo Freire, art for Maguire is a radical process of passion and indignation, which carries the potential of alternative futures. “the image carries the present, the medium carries the hope” says Maguire and expands by referring to the domains of loss as ‘the perpetrators of the injustice are worldwide and singular and that’s what makes the stories the same’.
Brian Maguire
‘The Clock Winds Down’ Series 2 No.1 Lake Tatu, 2024
acrylic on canvas
200 x 200 cm / 78.7 x 78.7 in
Brian Maguire
Over Our Heads the Hollow Seas Closed Up, 2016
acrylic on linen
290 x 270 cm / 114.2 x 106.3 in
Collection of The Tia Collection, Santa Fe
Brian Maguire
Contemporary Ruin, 2010
acrylic on linen
210 x 146 cm / 82.7 x 57.5 in unframed
216 x 151.5 x 4.5 cm / 85 x 59.6 x 1.8 in framed
Brian Maguire
Elizabeth, 2003
acrylic on canvas
183 x 135 cm / 72 x 53.1 in
Collection of Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
Brian Maguire
The Big House, 1990
acrylic on canvas
166 x 206 cm / 65.4 x 81.1 in
Collection of Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane
Brian Maguire
La Grande Illusion, 2024
Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin
Photo: Denis Mortell
Brian Maguire
In The Light Of Conscience, 2022
Missoula Art Museum, Montana, USA
Brian Maguire
War Changes Its Address and Other Border Stories, 2021
Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago, USA
Brian Maguire
Scenes of Absence, 2019
Rubin Center, Texas University, USA
Brian Maguire
Escenarios de ausencia (Scenes of Absence), 2019
Art Museum Ciudad Juárez, Mexico
Brian Maguire
War Changes Its Address: The Aleppo Paintings, 2018
Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland
Brian Maguire
J’Accuse!, 2015
Void, Derry, Northern Ireland
Brian Maguire
The Quick and the Dead, 2009
The Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin, Ireland
Painter Brian Maguire offers a behind-the-scenes look at his studio and works in progress. Maguire's virtual exhibition "Without Borders" was featured in American University Museum's Summer 2020 programme.
Artist Brian Maguire talks to Marianne O'Kane Boal about what inspires him.
Brian Maguire talking about his work and inspiration at the opening reception of his show at Fergus McCaffrey, New York.
Brian Maguire, Blood Rising, 2013, Directed by Mark McLoughlin, Music by Gavin Friday, 83 minute HD Feature Documentary Film, 52 minute TV version / Families of femicide victims of Juarez, seek justice through the help of artist Brian Maguire.
In Autumn 2024, Hugh Lane Gallery is organising a major exhibition of the work of Brian Maguire.
A strong history of philanthropy is celebrated at The Hugh Lane Gallery. Works by Richard Gorman, Elizabeth Magill, Brian Maguire and Sean Scully are exhibited alongside the museum's founding donation, which includes works by Manet, Monet, Degas, Corot and Courbet.
Brian Maguire will discuss his ongoing solo exhibition law of the land with the artist and professor Jeremy Welsh.
Brian Maguire is part of a three-person exhibition alongside James Concagh and Robert Chase Heishman, Then I laid the floor.
Solo exhibition by Brian Maguire, presenting two bodies of work made in the US: Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (M&MIP), and The Remains, Arizona.
Brian Maguire has two paintings included in Bodywork, an exhibition highlighting the crucial relationships between contemporary art practice and the body.
Brian Maguire was interviewed by John Burns for a full-page feature in The Irish Times.
Brian Maguire solo exhibition at Missoula Art Museum, Montana.
Brian Maguire and Isabel Nolan at Crawford Art Gallery, 'Odysseys', curated by Flicka Small and Michael Waldron.
'Remains', a major museum show of the 'Arizona' paintings and other recent works opens at Crawford Art Gallery, Cork. The exhibition is accompanied by a new publication.
