Born in Christchurch, New Zealand, in 1962, Marian Maguire graduated from the Ilam School of Art, University of Canterbury, in 1984, having majored in printmaking. During 1986 she studied at the Tamarind Institute of Lithography, Albuquerque, USA. She was awarded an Artist in Residence at the Otago Polytechnic School of Art in 1991 and received an Award for Excellence from the Canterbury Community Trust in 1998. In 2010 she was Artist in Residence at Tylee Cottage, Whanganui.
Marian Maguire has exhibited throughout New Zealand. Her early work was mainly figurative and gestural but in the early nineties she shifted her subject to emblematic architectural images. Her exhibitions include Library Travelling (McDougall Art Annex, Christchurch, 1996), in which she incorporated imagery from a wide range of historical sources with gates, archways, bridges, architectural plans and imaginary travelling, linking sixty-six small etchings and three large composite prints in a loose narrative. Perfect Planning (Centre of Contemporary Art, Christchurch 1996; Lesley Kriesler Gallery, New Plymouth, 1997) and Regarding the Renaissance (Centre of Contemporary Art, 1997) followed and in these series of paintings she explores the relationship between the architects of the Italian Renaissance and the art, architecture and mathematics of ancient Greece. Through this enquiry into Greek art she became interested in black-figure vase painting and produced two exhibitions, Vases & Narratives (Centre of Contemporary Art, 1999) and Mythical Landscapes (Eastern Southland Gallery, Gore, 2000, Centre of Contemporary Art, 2000).
In Mythical Landscapes she began to set Greek heroes in the New Zealand landscape. In Southern Myths (PaperGraphica, Christchurch, 2002; Auckland Art Gallery, 2005) she extends this idea into a series of nine etchings threaded on an adapted plotline from the Iliad. Forest, her next exhibition (PaperGraphica, 2003), was an installation of abstracted, geometric trees, inspired by Greek vase painting and painted on loose canvas. She returned to a narrative theme in The Odyssey of Captain Cook (Otago Museum, Dunedin, 2005; PaperGraphica, 2005; Millennium Art Gallery, Blenheim, 2006; Lopdell House, Titirangi, 2006) and in this series of lithographs and etchings the Endeavour is the vehicle by which the ancient Greeks collide with resident Ma ori.
While working on her next narrative print series, The Labours of Herakles, Maguire also made The Paper Garden, in which she combines patterning from Greek vase painting with her own observation of nature (PaperGraphica, 2007), and she contributed to the exhibition of Deities and Mortals, in which eight artists were asked to respond to the items from the Logie Collection of classical artefacts (Christchurch Art Gallery, 2007). The Labours of Herakles series of lithographs and etchings, in which she casts the Greek hero as a New Zealand pioneer, was first realeased at PaperGraphica in 2008. This exhibition made a twenty venue tour of New Zealand from 2008 to 2012 (organised by Exhibition Services). Half of the Herakles series was also shown at Impact 7: International Multi-disciplinary Printmaking Conference (Monash University, Melbourne, Australia 2011).
During 2011 she completed Titokowaru’s Dilemma, an exhibition encompassing three series of prints, which investigates aspects of the New Zealand wars of the 1860’s to 1880’s with Titokowaru, the Maori prophet and war leader of Nga Ruahine, South Taranaki, as protagonist. The prints at times echo the mythic struggle on the fields of Troy but Maguire also has Titokowaru engage with Socrates as he ponders whether to resist the onslaught of colonisation through passive resistance or warfare. Titokowaru’s Dilemma was first shown at Sarjeant Gallery, Whanganui, in 2011 and has since toured New Zealand.
Marian's home town of Christchurch was hit by devastating earthquakes in 2010 and 2011. Her response to the quakes was expressed in the exhibition of seven paintings on panel, Feats, Pursuits & Endless Toil, shown at PGgallery192 in 2015. In 2017 she exhibited two painted fire surrounds: Odysseus and Penelope. Between them, they present Marian's take on Homer's Odyssey. Lithographs accompanied these works.
Marian Maguire is represented in public collections including: Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa; Auckland Art Gallery, Toi o Tamaki; Christchurch Art Gallery, Te Puna o Waiwhetu; National Gallery of Australia; The Waikato Museum, Te Whare Taonga o Waikato; University of Canterbury; Massey University; The Hocken Collection, University of Otago; New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade; Central Queensland University, Australia; Cambridge University, United Kingdom; The Birthplace of Captain Cook Museum, Middlesborough, United Kingdom and the British Museum.
Marian Maguire has exhibited throughout New Zealand. Her early work was mainly figurative and gestural but in the early nineties she shifted her subject to emblematic architectural images. Her exhibitions include Library Travelling (McDougall Art Annex, Christchurch, 1996), in which she incorporated imagery from a wide range of historical sources with gates, archways, bridges, architectural plans and imaginary travelling, linking sixty-six small etchings and three large composite prints in a loose narrative. Perfect Planning (Centre of Contemporary Art, Christchurch 1996; Lesley Kriesler Gallery, New Plymouth, 1997) and Regarding the Renaissance (Centre of Contemporary Art, 1997) followed and in these series of paintings she explores the relationship between the architects of the Italian Renaissance and the art, architecture and mathematics of ancient Greece. Through this enquiry into Greek art she became interested in black-figure vase painting and produced two exhibitions, Vases & Narratives (Centre of Contemporary Art, 1999) and Mythical Landscapes (Eastern Southland Gallery, Gore, 2000, Centre of Contemporary Art, 2000).
In Mythical Landscapes she began to set Greek heroes in the New Zealand landscape. In Southern Myths (PaperGraphica, Christchurch, 2002; Auckland Art Gallery, 2005) she extends this idea into a series of nine etchings threaded on an adapted plotline from the Iliad. Forest, her next exhibition (PaperGraphica, 2003), was an installation of abstracted, geometric trees, inspired by Greek vase painting and painted on loose canvas. She returned to a narrative theme in The Odyssey of Captain Cook (Otago Museum, Dunedin, 2005; PaperGraphica, 2005; Millennium Art Gallery, Blenheim, 2006; Lopdell House, Titirangi, 2006) and in this series of lithographs and etchings the Endeavour is the vehicle by which the ancient Greeks collide with resident Ma ori.
While working on her next narrative print series, The Labours of Herakles, Maguire also made The Paper Garden, in which she combines patterning from Greek vase painting with her own observation of nature (PaperGraphica, 2007), and she contributed to the exhibition of Deities and Mortals, in which eight artists were asked to respond to the items from the Logie Collection of classical artefacts (Christchurch Art Gallery, 2007). The Labours of Herakles series of lithographs and etchings, in which she casts the Greek hero as a New Zealand pioneer, was first realeased at PaperGraphica in 2008. This exhibition made a twenty venue tour of New Zealand from 2008 to 2012 (organised by Exhibition Services). Half of the Herakles series was also shown at Impact 7: International Multi-disciplinary Printmaking Conference (Monash University, Melbourne, Australia 2011).
During 2011 she completed Titokowaru’s Dilemma, an exhibition encompassing three series of prints, which investigates aspects of the New Zealand wars of the 1860’s to 1880’s with Titokowaru, the Maori prophet and war leader of Nga Ruahine, South Taranaki, as protagonist. The prints at times echo the mythic struggle on the fields of Troy but Maguire also has Titokowaru engage with Socrates as he ponders whether to resist the onslaught of colonisation through passive resistance or warfare. Titokowaru’s Dilemma was first shown at Sarjeant Gallery, Whanganui, in 2011 and has since toured New Zealand.
Marian's home town of Christchurch was hit by devastating earthquakes in 2010 and 2011. Her response to the quakes was expressed in the exhibition of seven paintings on panel, Feats, Pursuits & Endless Toil, shown at PGgallery192 in 2015. In 2017 she exhibited two painted fire surrounds: Odysseus and Penelope. Between them, they present Marian's take on Homer's Odyssey. Lithographs accompanied these works.
Marian Maguire is represented in public collections including: Museum of New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa; Auckland Art Gallery, Toi o Tamaki; Christchurch Art Gallery, Te Puna o Waiwhetu; National Gallery of Australia; The Waikato Museum, Te Whare Taonga o Waikato; University of Canterbury; Massey University; The Hocken Collection, University of Otago; New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade; Central Queensland University, Australia; Cambridge University, United Kingdom; The Birthplace of Captain Cook Museum, Middlesborough, United Kingdom and the British Museum.
