Born in Christchurch in 1962, Marian Maguire graduated from the University of Canterbury in 1984 and in 1986 she studied at the Tamarind Institute of Lithography, Albuquerque. In 1991 she was Artist in Residence at the Otago Polytechnic School of Art and in 2010 was Artist in Residence at Tylee Cottage, Whanganui.
She received an award for excellence from the Canterbury Community Trust in 1998.
Marian Maguire's images mix the imagined with the real and display a personal response to history. Since 1997 her prints and paintings have been largely related to Greek vase painting.