Brian Maguire b.1951

During the 1980s, Maguire was particularly affected by the social and political unrest in Northern Ireland and the present work is typical of the bold expressive style he developed to express his concerns about the violence that had become a daily part of life in Northern Ireland and the people it affected.

His work has also placed a particular emphasis on involvement with excluded members of society and he has been artist in residence at prisons in Ireland, Poland and in the United States. Having represented Ireland at the 1998 Sao Paulo Biennale, Maguire was the subject of a major retrospective at The Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane in 2000 which travelled to the Contemporary Art Museum of Houston, Texas and the Crawford Art Gallery, Cork. His work is held in numerous public collections including those of The Hugh Lane; The Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin and the Alvar Aalto Museum, Finland.