Maree Clarke is a Melbourne-based Yorta Yorta/ Wamba Wamba/ Mutti Mutti/ Boonwurrung artist renowned for reclaiming South East Australian Aboriginal art and cultural practices. Her practice is deeply rooted in Country and community life; with an aim of revitalising aspects of Aboriginal culture that have become dormant due to colonization or loss.

Clarkemargarete is one of eight Australian and Japanese artists featured in Reversible Destiny at Tokyo Photographic Arts Museum, an exhibition exploring contemporary photography amid global upheaval, fragility, and uncertain futures. Her work explores themes like interconnection between Peoples, Rituals/Objects of Ancestors as well as mourning its Effects (Colonisation).

Margaret Crilley was born Margaret Crilley in Newry, County Down. She studied art at both Newry Municipal Technical College and Dublin Metropolitan School of Art with William Orpen (qv), earning several school prizes and scholarships along the way. As well as working as Orpen’s assistant he encouraged her to teach both at Dublin School of Art and Royal Hibernian Academy later on as well as painting portraits such as Lennox Robinson, President de Valera, Archbishop McQuaid as well as creating series of atmospheric landscapes.

She founded the Irish Exhibition of Living Art in 1943, and helped organise Evie Hone’s UCD exhibit in 1958. Additionally, she was one of the founding members of the Society of Irish Painters where she served for many years on its executive committee; following the death of her husband Harry Clarke Stained Glass Ltd was under her direction; after her own passing she directed Harry Clarke Stained Glass Ltd until 1961 when she died and is buried at Redford Cemetery near Greystones Co Wicklow.