Brian Maguire

GROW HOUSE

2014
acrylic on linen
78 3/4 x 55 1/8 inches

I try to make the pictures as beautiful as possible and their content as appropriate as possible; to seduce the viewer into accepting the work. – Brian Maguire

The large-scale painting Grow House comes from Brian Maguire’s time living in Juarez, Mexico, and his investigations into the international war on drugs and its tragic effect on the culture and land. The large brushstrokes and thinned down acrylic instill the landscape with a quiet ferocity that acts as the background for the violent conflict impacting the country. Most well-known for his figurative paintings of the forgotten and overlooked victims of war, the Irish painter began his relationship with social activism during the 1970s civil rights movement in Northern Ireland, and this year exhibited his most recent series focusing on the current migrant crisis.