Eye Wear What I Were

Notes

Marlene Steyn completed her Master of Fine Art at the Royal College of Art, London, in 2014. Her work was featured in Vitamin C: Clay and Ceramic in Contemporary Art (Phaidon, 2017). In 2025, Steyn presented Mind Fullness, a solo booth with SMAC at The Armory Show, New York, alongside the publication of her first artist monograph by SMAC. That same year, she was included in Motherhood: Paradox and Duality, curated by Andrea Lewis at the Iziko National Gallery, Cape Town. In 2024, Steyn was named the Stellenbosch Woordfees Festival Artist, which led to her first museum exhibition, Between My I’s : Tussen My Oë, at the Stellenbosch University Museum. She also presented I Open Her, a solo booth at the Investec Cape Town Art Fair with SMAC Gallery at the CTICC. In 2023, Steyn held the solo exhibition Home Bodies at SMAC in Stellenbosch and participated in group shows including X PINK 101 at the X Museum, Beijing, and NON-PLACES at Powerlong Art Centre, Shanghai. In 2022, she took part in Body and Thrall at Rugby Art Gallery & Museum, UK, and held the solo exhibition YOU-ME-VERSE at Lychee One, London. Her work is held in the collections of Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town; X Museum, Beijing; Royal College of Art, London; Lou Yi, Yis Foundation, London and Beijing and the Missoni Collection, Milan.

Biography courtesy of SMAC.