Brian maguire

A fiercely expressive painter Maguire’s principal topics have always been sexual and political alienation. He has consistently brought his mordant wit and savage indignation to bear on the indignities inflicted on the oppressed individual. The critic Donald Kuspit has described Maguire’s ‘gesturalism’ as ‘one of the most non-compliant in the history of expressionism’. His deeply felt social and political commitments have led to lengthy periods as artist-in-residence in many of Ireland’s prisons. The resulting work has often taken the form of portraiture although in recent times his chosen media have included video, photography and billboard posters as well as drawing and painting.. Maguire represented Ireland at the 1998 Sao Paulo Biennial resulting in what has perhaps become his best-known work, ‘Casa de Cultura’, a provocative and humane interaction with the inhabitants of the city’s favela and prisons. Maguire exhibits widely throughout Europe, Japan and the Americas. A major exhibition of his work took place at the Hugh Lane Municipal Gallery, Dublin and travelled to the Contemporary Art Museum, Houston, TX in 2000 and the Crawford Art Gallery, Cork in 2001.

During 2001 and 2002 Maguire collaborated with the women of two Correctional institutes in New York. In November 2002 the artist had an exhibition of his own and the prisoners work in the White Box gallery in Chelsea in the heart of the New York art world. As part of the exhibition the artist created a large-scale billboard for outdoor display in Lower Manhattan.

Among the many collections, both public and private, in which he is represented are those of the Irish Museum of Modern Art, the Alvar Aalto Museum, Finland, the Gemeentemuseum, The Hague, Netherlands and the Collection of Ed & Nancy Kienholz. In 2000 Maguire was appointed Professor of Fine Art and Head of the Faculty of Fine Art at the National College of Art and Design.