ExhibitionS:
conflicts of interest
Brian Maguire was born in 1951 in Dublin, Ireland. Over the last 40 years Maguire, who now divides his time between Dublin and Paris, has established a reputation as an artist of wholly uncompromising vision and far reaching impact. A visual agitator driven by the raw realities of conflict, human suffering and the voice of his own moral compass, Maguire describes ‘the aesthetic as a means to an end’ and his art as ‘an act of opposition’. With a focus on highlighting the plight of refugees, prisoners of war, minority groups and the dispossessed, Maguire’s commitment to his subjects has drawn him to some of the most marginalised peoples and places on the globe, where he gathers all of his source material first hand. Maguire began his artistic activism campaigning for the civil rights movement in the Republic of Ireland and has since documented wars in Syria and South Sudan, the hardship of life in the favelas of Brazil, the destruction of the slums in Nairobi, the cartel violence in Mexico and the migration crisis of southern Europe.
Brian Maguire has shown extensively in Europe, the US and Asia. 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 (2018); ‘J’ACCUSE’, Void, Derry (2016); ‘The Absence of Justice Demands This Act’, Fergus McCaffrey, New York (2015); Other selected shows include: ‘Changing States: Contemporary Irish Art and Francis Bacon’s Studio’, BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels (2013); X Espacio de Arte, Mexico City (2013); ‘Femicide/Juarez: Paintings by Brian Maguire’, at the European Parliament, Brussels (2012); Residency at the Coolmine Therapeutic Centre, Dublin (2009); Fairview Project, solo show at Galway Arts Centre in collaboration with Fairgreen Homeless Shelter (2005); 'Inside/ Out’, Solo travelling exhibition at Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery of Modern Art, Dublin, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Crawford Municipal Gallery, Cork (2000); Representation of Ireland at the XXIV Sao Paulo Bienal, Brazil (1998); ‘Irish Art 1970-1995’, Fuller Craft Museum, Boston (1995); 11 Cities / 11 Nations, First solo exhibition at Kerlin Gallery, Dublin (1990); Crossroads, Turns of the Mind: Some New Irish Art, first major exhibition of contemporary Irish art to tout North America (1985-87); ‘Making Sense’, Arts Council of Ireland touring show(1982).
Public collections include: Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland; Dublin City The Hugh Lane, Dublin; Arts Council Collection, Dublin; Crawford Art Gallery, Cork, Ireland; Dun Laoghaire Rathdown County Council, Dublin; National Portrait Collection, Limerick Office of Public Works, Kilkenny Art Gallery Collection, Kilkenny, Ireland; Trim, Ireland; Openbaar Psychiatrisch Zorgcentrum, Geel, Belgium; Trinity College, Dublin; University College, Cork and Dublin; Wicklow County Council, Ireland; Tia Collection, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA; Museo de Arte do Rio, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, USA; Gemeentemuseum, The Hague-Netherlands; Jyvaskyla Art Museum, Finland; Liverpool University, UK; Wolverhampton Art Gallery, UK.
