The gallery programme at Rua Red will launch with ‘These Beautiful Men’ exhibition

A specially commissioned body of work centred around men living in IPAS centres is to launch in Rua Red this Friday.

Rua Red will launch its 2026 gallery programme on Friday, March 6 with ‘These Beautiful Men’, by Dublin 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 Maguire draws portraits of the men, participants in Mangan’s workshop are invited to paint their understanding of home and hopes for the future.

These 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.

In recent years, Maguire has travelled the world to highlight injustice and the precarity of life for vulnerable communities, working in Montana, the Amazon, Arizona/US-Mexico border, South Sudan, Aleppo, Syria and the Mediterranean Sea.

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, with 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 Beautiful Men’ will be launched by Nick Henderson, CEO of the Irish Refugee Council on Friday, March 6 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.