Rua Red

On Friday 6 March, Rua Red launches it's 2026 gallery programme with 'These Beautiful Men', a newly commissioned body of work and exhibition by artist Brian Maguire.

Since October 2025, Maguire has been drawing men temporarily residing at an International Protection Accommodation Services (IPAS) Centre, a primary reception and processing centre for international protection applicants.

Maguire and Rua Red established a temporary art studio within the IPAS centre where artist Michael Mangan runs workshops three times a week. While Brian draws portraits of the men, participants in Mangan’s workshop are invited to paint their understanding of home and hopes for the future. Maguire’s portraits will be presented in Rua Red's Gallery One, while Gallery Two will feature audio recordings of the men's experiences and journeys to Ireland.

Life in the IPAS centre is marked by transience and uncertainty. Residents are relocated to accommodation at other locations at very short notice, typically within three weeks of arrival. This ever-present condition of impermanence informs Maguire's drawings, which are rapid responses made in charcoal. The works underscore the urgency and fragility of the encounters on which they are based.

Central to Maguire's practice is an ethics of witnessing, developed through direct engagement with communities. Time spent listening, observing, and being present is fundamental to the work itself. In recent years, Maguire has travelled the world to highlight injustice and the precarity of life for vulnerable communities, working in Montana (2020-25), the Amazon (2022-23), Arizona/US-Mexico border (2021-22), South Sudan (2018), Aleppo, Syria (2017), the Mediterranean Sea (2016), Ciudad Juárez, Mexico (2008-2015), and São Paulo, Brazil (1998-2003) to name a few. Working in Ireland for the first time in many years, Maguire now turns his attention to those seeking international protection from some of the conflicts and conditions his work has previously addressed.

In a context where individuals are often reduced to statistics, Maguire's portraits consider what it means to be seen, acknowledged, and brought into representation. Each sitter is given agency and dignity.

The exhibition at Rua Red runs concurrently and in dialogue with the exhibition ‘Brian Maguire: Portraits— The Failure of the State’, currently on view at the Irish Arts Centre (IAC), New York. Both exhibitions, curated by Jonathan Cummins and Maolíosa Boyle, centre on portraiture as an act of sustained attention — a turning towards another person, their family, and community — and bearing witness through time spent looking and listening to their stories and experiences. These concerns resonate strongly here also in this new work with its emphasis on presence, encounter, and testimony.

As Art for Human Rights notes of Maguire’s practice: “His work isn't just about aesthetics or expression - it carries a clear purpose: to confront injustice head-on and serve as a vehicle through which real human stories reach the world."

These Beautiful Men will be launched by Nick Henderson, CEO of the Irish Refugee Council this Friday, 6 March at 6pm. 'These Beautiful Men' by Brian Maguire was commissioned by Rua Red South Dublin Arts Centre curated by Maolíosa Boyle and Jonathan Cummins, funded by The Arts Council Ireland, South Dublin County Council Arts Office and Rua Red South Dublin Arts Centre.

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: Portraits — The Failure of the State, Irish Arts Center (IAC), New York (2026); La Grande Illusion, USF Contemporary Art Museum, Tampa, Florida (2025–26); Outrage: Missing and Murdered Indigenous People in Montana, Missoula Art Museum (MAM), USA (2025); La Grande Illusion, Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin (2024-2025); 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).

Admission to the gallery is free. Rua Red is proud to be supported by the Arts Council, South Dublin County Council, Creative Ireland, and the Government of Ireland; Project Ireland 2040.

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