Magill’s paintings are enigmatic and evocative psychological takes on the traditional landscape genre. The title of the exhibition ‘By This River’ is in homage to Brian Eno’s song of the same title, with each painting named after a line from the song. Rich with fragmented forms and kaleidoscopic patterning, the images are formed by Magill’s imagination, memories and photographs. The term ‘inscape’ has been used to describe Magill’s works - landscapes not conceived by direct observation but imbued with a sense of self and reflection. Though they have a cinematic beauty, her paintings are eerie and foreboding: trees or telephone wires conceal the view, birds flock in the night sky, silhouetted human figures against backdrops of hills, rocks and lakes and over everything there is intense and often lurid light. Recent paintings with their saturated hues and dark outlined forms convey an increasing sense of impending climate catastrophe. Her images are deeply rooted - as is her imagination – in the County Antrim coast of her childhood and the uneasy coexistence of a legendary landscape with a social history skewed by toxic political conflict. 

Magill’s complex and densely layered paintings employ a multitude of techniques including screen- printing, stencilling and collage of images taken from photographs as well as the pouring, blending and dripping of paint. Film and photography are central to her work and imagery, infusing her approach to light, tone, and atmosphere.

Elizabeth Magill was born in Canada in 1959 and grew up in Northern Ireland. She studied fine art at Belfast College of Art (1979-82) and the Slade School of Fine Art in London (1982-84). Magill's work is represented in many museum and public collections worldwide including TATE; IMMA; Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin; Arts Council Collection; The Arts Council of Ireland and Northern Ireland; Ulster Museum; British Museum, London; Towner Eastbourne; Worcester City Art Gallery and Museum; Southampton City Art Gallery; The New Art Gallery Walsall; Government Art Collection; The British Council; Sunderland Museum &Winter Gardens; National Gallery of Australia. Magill lives and works in London and Northern Ireland.