Brian Maguire b. 1951, Dublin, Ireland. Since the very beginning of his career in the 1970s, Brian Maguire has approached painting as an act of solidarity. He operates a truly engaged practice, compelled by the raw realities of humanity’s violence against itself, and the potential for justice. Maguire’s preoccupations draw him to the margins of the art world—alternative space, prisons, women’s shelters, and psychiatric institutions—making shows in traditional gallery and museum spaces something of a rarity. Maguire’s most recent paintings directly confront issues of migration, displacement and human dignity in the face of the current global unrest. They are some of his most nuanced and ambitious to date, which he has crafted with larger brushes and thinned-down acrylic on canvas. He works slowly, using photographic sources, searching for that point where illustration ceases and art begins. This growing contrast between the seductive painterly aesthetic and the subject matter only adds to the potential impact of these formidable canvases. 2018 sees the publication of a substantial new artist monograph for Brian Maguire, surveying his career to date. Maguire has shown extensively in Europe and the US, also participating in shows in Korea, China and Japan. Current and forthcoming solo exhibitions include Juarez to Aleppo, Rubin Center for the Visual Arts, University of Texas, El Paso; Museo de Arte de Ciudad Juárez, Juárez, Mexico (all 2019) and American University Museum, Washington DC, USA (2020). Recent solo exhibitions include War Changes Its Address: The Aleppo Paintings, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin; Concerned, Royal Hibernian Academy, Dublin (both 2018); J’Accuse!, The Void, Derry (2015–2016); The Absence of Justice Demands This Act, Fergus McCaffrey, New York (2015); X Espacio de Arte, Mexico City (2013); European Parliament, Brussels (2012) and Cultuurcentrum de Werft, Geel, Belgium (2012). Public collections include Irish Museum of Modern Art; Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane; Museum of Fine Art Houston, Texas; Gemeentemuseum, Den Haag, The Netherlands; Alvar Alto Museum, Finland.

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