Marlene Steyn was born in Cape Town in 1989 and lives and works there. She trained at Stellenbosch University and holds a Master of Fine Arts from the Royal College of Art in London (2014). Her work has been shown at The Armory Show in New York (Mind Fullness, 2025), at the US Museum in Stellenbosch and at SMAC Gallery, and is held in collections including the Zeitz MOCAA, the X Museum in Beijing and the Royal College of Art. She has been featured in publications on contemporary clay, including Phaidon's Vitamin C: Clay and Ceramic in Contemporary Art, and received the 2024 kykNET Fiëstas Award for Best Achievement in Visual Arts.

Marlene has painted a shell featuring the most wonderful group of figures including a confident male frontal nude where the curves of the shell are in fact now a penis! I can never see this curved bit in any other way, Thanks Marlene! but that is her absolute genius! bending body parts into each other with surrealist quality and immense talent as a painter. We Looooooove!

Dimensions: 23 x 20cm
Every shell is wired by George Magaso, ready to hang directly on the wall from a nail.

@marlenehettie
https://www.smacgallery.com