Marlene Steyn (b. 1989, Cape Town, South Africa) lives and works in Cape Town. She obtained a Master of Fine Arts from the Royal College of Art, London, in 2014, following a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Art (MA) from Stellenbosch University, South Africa.

Her work has been featured in CLAY FORMES: Contemporary Clay from South Africa (Art Formes, 2023), Taschen’s Plant Magick: The Library of Esoterica (2022), and Phaidon’s Vitamin C: Clay and Ceramic in Contemporary Art (2017).

In 2025, Marlene Steyn: Selected Works (SMAC Gallery, 2025), the first monographic publication on her practice, was released alongside a solo presentation titled Mind Fullness at The Armory Show, New York, USA. That same year, she was included in Motherhood: Paradox and Duality, curated by Andrea Lewis at the Iziko South African National Gallery, Cape Town.

Steyn presented her first museum exhibition, between my i’s : tussen my oë, at the US Museum, Stellenbosch, in 2024, as the Stellenbosch Woordfees Festival Artist. She subsequently received the 2024 KykNET Fiëstas Award for Best Achievement in Visual Arts for this presentation.

Further solo exhibitions include Home Bodies at SMAC Gallery, Stellenbosch (2023); You Me Verse at Lychee One, London (2022); deep she dive her at SMAC Gallery, Cape Town, and Unbuttoning my belly at Lychee One, London (both 2019); Shouty Insides at Galerie DYS, Brussels (2018); and Knot I : I Knot at SMAC Gallery, Johannesburg (2017), among others.

Selected group exhibitions include X PINK 101 at the X Museum, Beijing, China, and NON-PLACES at the Powerlong Art Centre, Shanghai, China (both 2023); Body and Thrall at the Rugby Art Gallery & Museum, Rugby, UK, and Kindred at the Boschendal Norval Art Gallery, Franschhoek, South Africa (both 2022); and L’Heure Bleue at PLUS-ONE Gallery, Antwerp, Belgium, and the Norval Foundation Sculpture Garden at the Norval Foundation, Cape Town (both 2020). Her work was also included in the inaugural exhibition All Things Being Equal at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA), Cape Town, in 2017.

Steyn’s work is held in the collections of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa (MOCAA), Cape Town; the X Museum, Beijing; the Royal College of Art, London; the Luo Yi and YIS Foundation (London and Beijing); and the Missoni Collection, Milan.