Marian Maguire

B. 1962

Marian Maguire, Boogie Woogie with Gordon Walters #L21 2018, acrylic on Jhadi cotton rag paper, 1000 x 670 mm $3500

Botanical Folio #12, 2024, pen and acrylic on handmade Khadi Indian cotton rag paper 640g, 1000 x 670 mm $4700 (framed)

Stem#S2, 2024, pen and acrylic on paper, 180 x 140 mm, 300 x 260 mm (framed) $900

Demeter
(After a red-figure painting on a hydria attributed to the Chicago Painter, 450–440BC)
2020-21, acrylic and polyurethane on ply, 375 x 385 mm $2400

Hermes’ Ankles
(Invented) 
2020-21, acrylic and polyurethane on ply, 375 x 385 mm $2400

Chariot race
(After Kleitias, painter of the François Vase, 570–565BC) 2021, acrylic and polyurethane on ply, 375 x 385 mm $2400

Limited edition prints

Artist Biography

Born in Christchurch in 1962, Marian Maguire graduated from the Ilam School of Art, University of Canterbury in 1984. In 1986, she studied at the Tamarind Institute of Lithography, Albuquerque, USA. In 2018 Marian was formally adopted by Ngāti Hāua o Ngāruahinerangi, Taranaki. She currently lives and works in Christchurch.

Marian has exhibited extensively in solo and group shows in New Zealand, as well as internationally, in Australia, United Kingdom, Belgium and Germany. She was the Artist in Residence at the Otago Polytechnic School of Art in 1991, and at Tylee Cottage, Whanganui in 2010. Two series of her work have been shown in long-running collection displays at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, UK, and recently she was one of only three living artists to be included in Troy: myth and reality, a major exhibition at the British Museum.

Marian’s work is represented in numerous public collections in New Zealand, including Te Papa Taongawera Museum of New Zealand, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, and Christchurch Art Gallery Te Puna o Waiwhetū. Her work is also held internationally, in collections such as Cambridge University, United Kingdom, and the National Gallery of Australia.

Marian is well-known for her lithographs and etchings, which present an intersection between the colonial history of Aotearoa New Zealand, and classical Greek vase painting. In series such as The Odyssey of Captain Cook (2005), The Labours of Herakles (2008), and Titokowaru’s Dilemma (2011), Marian confronts the viewer, posing difficult questions about how a nation might remember and represent its history. In 2022, The Enlightenment Project saw Marian take these ideas and widen the framework. Seeking to understand the world-wide impact of Western history, Marian’s ambitious suite of works, which she describes as an ongoing project, explore philosophical ideas, politics, scientific discoveries, inventions, and historical events, charting a journey from classical antiquity, through global Western expansion, and culminating in open-ended questions about knowledge and belief, and how history is written.

Alongside her narrative works, Marian has consistently made abstract paintings, prints and drawings. These often play with geometric patterning and botanical themes. Her painting series Boogie Woogie with Gordon Walters (2018) and Stem (2024) are recent examples.

www.marianmaguire.com

Solo Exhibitions

Group Exhibitions