Mark John
Maguire
Artists in the 21st Century, it is said, have never had it so good since the Rennaisance period. The reason for this, of course, has been the advent of the internet and the prominence social media has assumed in our lives, connecting people across the globe in a way that would have been inconceivable even 20 years ago. The impact of social media, where immediacy is paramount and virality the measure of success, has been to make the image king. Naturally, those who make images have flourished. Mark John Maguire is an artist who has established a following that would be the envy of some of our most feted artists and this is in no small way due to his effective use of the new media. Certainly his work has enjoyed a remarkable degree of recognition and success in a relatively short space of time and his paintings are recognised in a truly global sense.
An artist who has
established a following
e 10001 NYC New York
His background seems unusual for an artist - only 10 years ago he was working at the heart of government, meeting and advising people like the Prince of Wales and UK Government Ministers, before suddenly turning his back on this and producing some of the most striking art today. Born in Liverpool and educated in Germany, Maguire served in the army, worked as a barman, dustman, driver, printer and tank sealer in many cities across Europe, before studying for History and Philosophy degrees, and an MA in Intellectual and Cultural History. From here he became a Government Policy Adviser, Head of International Affairs and Principal Private Secretary at the National Assembly for Wales. Then he left, tired he says, of "the deceit of government, its institutional hypocrisy and the self-serving nature of those within it." He began painting in his familiar and highly distinctive style driven by what he refers to as a fundamental reassessment of his life and of the world around him.
“It was a painful process" he says, "establishing new paradigms and letting go of old ones that have served well enough for most of one's life is difficult... The transition took time and along the way, my art and writing have allowed me to explore the essence of what I - and the world - are about."
It is against this background that we must view Maguire's intriguing metaphysical paintings, for they bear the hallmarks of his intellectual and aesthetic predilections as well as his seemingly restless exploration of the physical world of experience. Certainly his vibrant, intensely colourful, paintings provide us with a powerful insight into the paradoxes we as humans face in our interactions and the difficulties we have in communicating with each other and with the world outside of ourselves. Indeed, in the world of Maguire's art it is clear that the individual is paramount and is responsible for all his or her own decisions. The paintings often depict a man in a dark suit (who bears a striking resembance to the artist) and a woman, in a minimalist setting stripped to a few bare essentials: a chair, a pair of shoes or other objects which may reference, but do not distract from, the essence of the relationship between the two. Maguire himself plays down the apparent similarity of the man to himself:
"He is me" he says, "but only in a notional sense - he is there as a witness; to stake my authority in the moment or the event".
ARTIST BIOGRAPHY
Bay Life Living Magazine Nov/Dec 2015/Jan 2016
Christmas and New Year