Elmari Steyn was born in Namibia and began her creative career in fashion and design. Since moving to Australia in 2012, she has established herself as a dedicated printmaker and jeweler. Her practice centers on copperplate etching, where stories, memories, and fragments of experience are embedded into bare metal and revealed through the slow, tactile process of printmaking.
Steyn’s work explore wilderness, memory, and community, drawing on her intimate relationship with the natural world. She works with multiple hand-cut copperplates, layering symbols, images, and words to create poetic narratives that transcend boundaries of time and place.
She describes printmaking as a state of being: where drawing the first lines into the resist finds a connection, and each impression on paper carries traces of both the physical act of making and the emotional landscapes from which the work arises.
Elmari lives and works in the Southern Forests of Western Australia, where the environment continues to shape her creative practice.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2025 Drift Woods (Solo) – Holmes à Court Gallery, Margaret River, WA; Focus Artist – Queenscliff Gallery, VIC; Burnie Print Prize, TAS; The Jury Art Prize, Port Hedland, WA
2024 Amygdala (Joint Installation) – IOTA, Painted Tree Gallery, WA; Perth Royal Art Prize, WA; Vessel (Joint) – Queenscliff Gallery, VIC
2023 Winter Salon – Gallery 152, York, WA; Moments in Life – Queenscliff Gallery, VIC; Genius Loci – Mundaring Arts Centre, WA
2022 Quiddity (Solo) – Painted Tree Gallery, WA; Unique States – Holmes à Court Gallery, WA; SWAN Touring Exhibition – FORM, Perth & Painted Tree, WA
2021 Double Act (Joint) – ArtGeo Gallery, Busselton, WA; City of Joondalup Invitation Art Prize, WA; Fremantle Print Award, WA; Peebles Print Prize, VIC
2019 Tree House (Solo) – Tresillian Art Centre, Nedlands, WA; Megalo Print Prize, ACT
2018 Australian Print Triennial, Mildura, VIC; InkMasters Print Exhibition, Cairns, QLD; 6th Biennial Footprint Exhibition, Connecticut, USA
SELECTED AWARDS
2023 Winner – Fine Art @ Hale, WA; Winner – City of Rockingham Art Awards, WA
2022 Winner – Shire of Morawa Acquisitive Award, WA; Works on Paper Prize – Morawa Art Awards, WA
2021 Winner – Busselton Art Prize, WA; Works on Paper Prize – Kalgoorlie Boulder Art Awards, WA; Works on Paper Prize – Cossack Art Awards, WA; Mitomel Prize (Second) – InkMasters Print Exhibition, QLD; Winner – Beverley Art Prize, WA; Winner – Cherry Harmony Arts Award, Manjimup, WA
2019 First Prize (Joint Winner) – Busselton Art Prize, WA
2018 Winner – 2D Work, TASF Art Awards, Fremantle, WA; Patrons Award – Contemporary Print Awards Exhibition, Fremantle, WA
2017 Printmaking Award – York Art and Craft Awards, WA
2016 Highly Commended – Contemporary Print Awards Exhibition, Fremantle, WA
2014 Patrons Award – Contemporary Print Awards Exhibition, Fremantle, WA
COLLECTIONS
Cities of Busselton, Kalgoorlie, Karratha, Melville, Morawa
St. John of God Healthcare
Private collections in Australia, Germany, France, Namibia, and South Africa
ARTWORKS
Mural on Glyde Street – Mosman Park, Perth WA
Aluminum Sculpture for ARUP with Peter Farmer – St Georges Terrace, Perth WA
Aluminum Sculpture for Aurecon – Perth CBD, WA