The Skylark brings you an exhibition of the work of Edinburgh artist and printmaker Marie Varley.

"The primary sources for my artworks are postage stamps from the 1960’s onwards. The postage stamp was once the greatest ambassador for its country. With current technological advances and the arrival of the internet and concurrently the ‘email’, the postage stamp has lost its once powerful ability to advertise the identity of a chosen country. This contemporary concern for the purpose of the postage stamp is what has influenced my artwork from the beginning.

By experimenting with the original scale of the postage stamp, I became interested in how the audience could view these artefacts outside of their original context. The imagery is disassembled and there is a more concerned questioning of the sometimes propagandic imagery used in each stamp. By simply redisplaying the graphic design of that time, conclusions can be drawn on the social context of that time."

Marie graduated from Limerick School of Art & Design, Ireland with a first class honours Degree in Painting in 2011. Since then she has been developing her work and printmaking skills in Edinburgh. She has exhibited in group and solo shows both in Ireland and the UK.