Fintan Magee is a Sydney based social realist painter, specializing in large-scale murals. Born in 1985 in Lismore, New South Wales, to an architect mother and father who was a sculptor, he started drawing at a young age. His earlier large-scale paintings often inhabited the isolated, abandoned and broken corners of the city, and today are found all over the world including in London, Vienna, Los Angeles, Miami, Atlanta, Buenos Aires, Aalborg, Copenhagen, Moscow, Rome, Jordan, and Dublin among others. Many of the murals that Magee has made around the world often depict topics of societal concern with outset in the town or country he is working in. As part of the ‘Out in the Open’ mural project of KIRK Gallery, this resulted in the outstanding mural 'Structure'.

Magee’s practice is informed by a profound interest in political murals, inspired by exposure at a young age to those of his Father’s native Northern Ireland. This is reflected in the socialist nature of his public artworks, which combine journalistic elements with public art. Magee’s work is driven by his recognition of the power of murals to communicate political and social viewpoints and thus divide or unite communities.

Magee puts it like this:
‘Looking back, I realised that, in particular, the big art institutions and artists themselves weren't really connecting with working people. When I started painting murals, I saw that as an opportunity to just reconnect with people who don't have "capital A" art as part of their daily lives in a way that feels natural. I feel like that disconnection is kind of intentional, particularly in Australia and Britain, and reinforces the class system.’

Drawing from personal experience and the mundane, his figurative paintings are deeply integrated with the urban environment and explore themes of diversity, migration and transition, waste and consumption, loss, and the environment. His works exude an inherent sentimentality and softness influenced by children’s books and the Low Brow art movement.

In recent years, Magee has solidified his position as one of Australia’s leading public artists and has traveled extensively, completing projects in countries across the world, including Belarus, India, Jordan, Spain, Tahiti, USA, among many others.

Magee has been featured in the Sydney Morning Herald, Juxtapoz Magazine, ABC News , The Australian, The Urban Contemporary Art Guide (2014, 2015), Street Art Australia (Lou Chamberlain), Graffiti Art (FR) Home & Design : Trends Magazine, Surface (Soren Solker) (DK), among others.


EDUCATION

2009 Bachelor of Fine arts- Griffith University, QCA