OPENING ON SATURDAY 15.03.2025, 16H-20H
“Universal human rights mean nothing if they embrace only those we admire, and victims of forces that we recognize and understand”
Brian Maguire
Galerie Christophe Gaillard is pleased to present A History of America, Brian Maguire’s second solo exhibition at the gallery in Paris. A committed and deeply humanist Irish artist, Maguire dedicates this exhibition to his latest series of paintings: around fifteen portraits depicting Indigenous people who have gone missing or were murdered in the United States.
Faithful to his long-standing commitment to human rights and social justice, Brian Maguire initiated the Missing and Murdered Indigenous People (M&MIP) series during a residency at the Missoula Art Museum (Montana) in 2021. The artist collaborated with the grieving families of victims to create memorial portraits that capture the spirit and dignity of the missing individuals. Based on photographs chosen by the families, each portrait serves as a tribute, drawing attention to the silent crisis affecting Indigenous communities in the United States. Through his conversations with the families of the deceased, Brian Maguire learned that many of the bodies bore signs of violence, revealing that the victims had suffered assaults and murders, even when their deaths had been officially attributed to inconspicuous causes such as hypothermia. These hasty classifications, often without thorough investigations, reinforce suspicions of negligence or even complicity on the part of local authorities. In 2021, during the production of the documentary Say Her Name (dir. Rain, 2021), 86% of cases of missing and murdered Indigenous women in Montana remained unsolved, with no effective intervention from the FBI. This proportion of unresolved cases is the highest in the country relative to the population.
Brian Maguire’s works do not merely represent individuals; they tell stories of systemic violence, institutional neglect, and resilience. For each victim, Maguire creates two paintings: one is given to the family as an intimate remembrance, while the other is exhibited to raise awareness among a wider audience about these often-overlooked tragedies. Maguire challenges traditional power dynamics in commemorative art, giving a voice to those who have been marginalized and colonized.
Since the 1970s, Brian Maguire has developed a painting practice deeply rooted in his social and political engagement. Portraits have always been central to his work, particularly in his Mexican Paintings series (2012-2015). Maguire created these works in response to the femicides and the disappearance of hundreds of young women in Juárez since 1993. Over the decades, his work has expanded to various contexts, penetrating prisons and psychiatric institutions or focusing on communities affected by social conflicts (Aleppo, Syria (2017), Bentiu, South Sudan (2018)). Brian Maguire thus reinterprets the famous phrase of painter Paul Klee through the lens of our contemporary era: he reminds us that “art does not reproduce the visible; rather, it makes visible.” For Brian Maguire, painting is a tool of testimony and solidarity that “makes visible” those too often forgotten in dominant narratives. His approach, both empathetic and critical, continues to challenge power structures and systemic injustices while celebrating human dignity.
