Entitled “La Grande Illusion” the exhibition 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 and uncompromising, 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, with works from Hugh Lane Gallery and Crawford art Gallery collections alongside works from private collections including the Tia Collection, Santa Fe. These include paintings 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’.
This exhibition is co-curated by Michael Dempsey, Head of Exhibitions and Barbara Dawson Director, Hugh Lane Gallery.
La Grande Illusion will be accompanied by a catalogue featuring illuminating essays by Lucy Cotter, Michael Dempsey, Marc Donnadieu and Christian Viveros Faune, that contextualise the exhibition and the environment in which it is created.
Admission Free. All Welcome.
The exhibition opens in the Hugh Lane Gallery, Parnell Square, Dublin on 3 October 2024 and will run until 23 March 2025.
Image credits: Installation view, Brian Maguire: La Grande Illusion, clockwise: The Burning Amazon, 2023, Child Living From the Waste Food on the City Dump (São Paulo 2003), Video of Brian Maguire’s visit to the Maraguá people in the Amazon, Brazil, 2022. Image courtesy Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin. Photography Denis Mortell, © Brian Maguire.
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Brian Maguire – Profile
Brian Maguire lives and works in Dublin and Paris. Brian Maguire’s painting practice is driven by the struggle against inequality and violence, and the pursuit of justice. His process is foremost 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. Recent solo exhibitions include Social Forms: Art as Global Citizenship, Converge 45, Portland (2023); law of the land, Kunsthall 3,14, Bergen, Norway (2023); The Clock Winds Down, Kerlin Gallery, Dublin (2023); In The Light Of Conscience, Missoula Art Museum, Montana (2022); North and South of the Border, Rhona Hoffman Gallery, Chicago (2022); Remains, Crawford Art Gallery, Cork, Ireland (2021); An Anatomy of Politics, Galerie Christophe Gaillard, Paris (2021).
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Press Release
For all press inquiries, please contact Rian McCarthy [email protected] or Shatabdi Roy [email protected]
Hugh Lane Gallery announces significant exhibition by leading Irish artist and human rights advocate, Brian Maguire.
‘La Grande Illusion’ opens on Thursday October 3rd 2024 and runs to Sunday March 23rd, 2025. Admission is Free
A major exhibition of works by internationally acclaimed artist, Brian Maguire, will open at Hugh Lane Gallery next month.
Entitled La Grande Illusion, the exhibition spans two decades of work that spotlights the artist’s repeated quest to draw attention to global injustices, war, and human rights.
La Grande Illusion examines a period of intense productivity for Maguire: 2007–2024. It explores his activism through large-scale paintings from projects in Juárez, Mexico (2012–15), the Mediterranean (2016), Aleppo (2017), South Sudan (2018), the Amazon (2022), Arizona (2022) and Brazil (2022-23).
Themes of violence, the drug and gun trades, and damage to the environment are all evident. By embedding himself in the communities he paints – from the streets of Jaurez to the warn-torn neighbourhoods of Aleppo- Maguire uses his canvas as testimony to the silenced and the forgotten.
According to Michael Dempsey, Head of Exhibitions at Hugh Lane Gallery:
“Art for Maguire is a radical process of passion and indignation, which carries the potential of alternative futures. In the exhibition, 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 and uncompromising, his paintings form a demand for social justice and are an act of solidarity with families and communities.”
Maguire’s work has been celebrated in museums and galleries worldwide, igniting critical conversations on human rights through his visceral and intimate paintings.
In looking at the plight of those erased by media or state institutions, Maguire reminds us just why painting matters. He explains:
“The image carries the present, the medium carries the hope. The perpetrators of the injustice are worldwide and singular and that’s what makes the stories the same. The individual painting is anecdotal but when taken as a body of work, it represents global capitalism which while invisible is at the same time all pervasive.”
La Grande Illusion is co-curated by Michael Dempsey, Head of Exhibitions and Barbara Dawson Director, Hugh Lane Gallery.
La Grande Illusion will be accompanied by a catalogue featuring illuminating essays by Lucy Cotter, Christian Viveros-Fauné, Marc Donnadieu and Michael Dempsey that contextualise the exhibition.
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Press Coverage for Brian Maguire – La Grande Illusion
The Irish Times | Video
‘I’m not interested in decorating anybody’s wall’ Interview with Brian Maguire and Christy Moore Watch here
RTE.ie Culture | Essay
Essay written by Michael Dempsey, Head of Exhibitions, Hugh Lane Gallery Read hereThe Gloss | Interview
Artistic License: Brian Maguire. A Q&A with Brian Maguire and Michael Dempsey, Head of Exhibitions, Hugh Lane Gallery Read herePA Media | Article
Featured across multiple news sites
“Artist Brian Maguire hopes visitors to exhibition will ‘identify with the dead’” Read hereHot Press Magazine | Sponsored article
Read hereMutual Art | Online
Read here
Installation view, Brian Maguire: La Grande Illusion, clockwise: The Burning Amazon, 2023, Child Living From the Waste Food on the City Dump (São Paulo 2003), Video of Brian Maguire’s visit to the Maraguá people in the Amazon, Brazil, 2022. Image courtesy Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin. Photography Denis Mortell, © Brian Maguire.
Installation view, Brian Maguire: La Grande Illusion, clockwise: Cocaine Laundry HSBC, 2015, Rainforest 5, 2023. Image courtesy Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin. Photography Denis Mortell, © Brian Maguire.
Installation view, Brian Maguire: La Grande Illusion, clockwise: Nairobi – 28/01/07, 2007, People’s Palace, 2010, Over Our Heads the Hollow Seas Closed Up, 2016. Image courtesy Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin. Photography Denis Mortell, © Brian Maguire.
Co- Curators, Michael Dempsey, Head of Exhibitions and Dr. Barbara Dawson, Director Brian Maguire: La Grande Illusion, Background image credit: Police Graduation (Juarez), 2012. Image courtesy Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin. Photography Denis Mortell, © Brian Maguire.
Installation view, Brian Maguire: La Grande Illusion, Aleppo 4, 2017. Image courtesy Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin. Photography Denis Mortell, © Brian Maguire.
Installation view, Brian Maguire: La Grande Illusion, Nature Morte (4), 2014. Image courtesy Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin. Photography Denis Mortell, © Brian Maguire.
Installation view, Brian Maguire: La Grande Illusion, clockwise: Nature Morte (6) 2014, Massacre (Loredo) 2014, Nature Morte (4), 2014. Image courtesy Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin. Photography Denis Mortell, © Brian Maguire.
Detail view, Brian Maguire, Nature Morte (6) 2014. Image courtesy Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin. Photography Denis Mortell, © Brian Maguire.
Installation view, Brian Maguire: La Grande Illusion, Contemporary Ruin, 2010. Image courtesy Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin. Photography Denis Mortell, © Brian Maguire.
Installation view, Brian Maguire: La Grande Illusion, clockwise: Nairobi – 28/01/07, 2007, People’s Palace, 2010, Over Our Heads the Hollow Seas Closed Up, 2016. Image courtesy Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin. Photography Denis Mortell, © Brian Maguire.
Installation view, Brian Maguire: La Grande Illusion, The Clear Cut Amazon, 2023. Image courtesy Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin. Photography Denis Mortell, © Brian Maguire.
