Brian Maguire's concerns are continually addressed through a practice that is always changing. His work goes round in a circle and as it goes round it gathers momentum; everything that rises eventually converging. His evolution is not defined by adopting a new practice – it is a constant that has shifted to a new level in this compelling, emphatic and compassionate suite of paintings. Maguire brings into view what is hidden and forgotten.
Frequently in his career this has included bodies of work borne out of his experiences and involvement in specific projects with people often teetering on the perimeters of social structures; 'Bayview 2002' is the result of Maguire working with the inmates of a women's prison at Bayview in Chelsea, New York; his public art project 'Citizen' with the patients in OPZ Geel (Openbaar Psychiatrisch Zorgcentrum, Belgium) which has just been completed; 'Portraits of Day Room' a collaborative project with the patients of Gransha Hospital Derry, the Orchard Gallery and the Area Mental Health Unit and 'Casa da Cultura' his exhibition as Ireland's representative at the XXIV Bienal de Sao Paulo in 1998, part of which resulted from his working for three months with the young pupils of Vila Prudente situated in the favelas of Sao Paulo. Last year, in his capacity as Professor of Fine Art at the National College of Art and Design, he brought his graduates and undergraduates to the New World Social Forum in Nairobi to witness the abject poverty in which over two million Kenyans live in the outskirts of the city. Like Philip Guston, through an economy of imagery he tells the whole story of a vast bleak cosmopolitan centre which threatens rather than protects. The explicitness of the situation unfolds without the use of narrative. Brian Maguire delivers the message without the boredom of means. The subject is prevalent, constant and immediate. Human dignity prevails over and above the conflict, be it injustice or aesthetic concerns.

The picture of Patrice Lumumba before being shot is one of the most famous press images to come from Africa in the 1960s. After his assassination, just ten weeks after becoming the first democratically elected leader of the newly independent Republic of Congo, this image appeared worldwide. Our acquaintance with the image loses its casual familiarity in Maguire's searing portrait (Fig 4). The fragility of a newly democratic state was again shattered ten years later in Chile, when their democratically elected President Dr Salvador Allende was assassinated. Maguire's portrait of the doctor, also based on a newspaper photograph is both robust and concerned, his eyes peering out from a face suspended on a vivid red background (Fig 2). His death inspired a popular song in the USA also sung by Christy Moore 'The good doctor lies with bullets in his eyes.' American Runner recalls the television image of Tommy Smith winning the 200 metres at the Mexican Olympics in 1968, breaking the world record. It is based on what is believed to be the sixth most remembered television picture of the 20th century. In a symbolic gesture of support for the Olympic Project for Human Rights, Smith removed his shoes and raised his fist on the winners' podium. Such a performance piece cost him dearly. Maguire's ability to manipulate these popular images into wholly independent aesthetic experiences is what makes these paintings hugely significant.

Hidden Island – Guest Worker (Fig 3) portrays the hardships endured by immigrant guest workers. This tragic figure has no voice, no sex and no recourse to family life. The whole unresolved question surrounding these workers is raised through this one image. The scales of justice are turned on their head, as this man sitting on a weighing scale is valued solely in terms of his weight in labour.

Whilst the subject matter is tough and the questions raised uncomfortable, in this new work we experience a celebration of the transcendent and aesthetic nature of his painting through colour and surface. He remains true to his expressionist background and the images are wielded into pulsating dynamic painting. The churned up red earth in Nairobi 28/1/07 (Fig 5) mounts up on the surface in sensuous circular brushstrokes; such a riot of colour screams of the havoc wreaked on the dwellers by this illegal clearance of their settlement. In Nairobi 28/2/07, the empathy and compassion with which the remaining occupant is revealed underneath all the upheaval is underpinned by the contained delicacy of the composition.
Things don't seem to change, but by bringing attention to his subjects they are neither dead nor powerless. Brian Maguire adjusts the scales of these events which have been manipulated for political contingency and loads them on the side of humanity. They are celebrations of lives; emphatic, compassionate and sensual portrayals of human existence.
Barbara Dawson is Director of Dublin City Gallery The Hugh Lane.

Brian Maguire, Hidden Islands: Notes from the War on the Poor, Kerlin Gallery, Dublin, 21 March – 19 April 2008. All Images ©The Artist. Courtesy the Kerlin Gallery.