JOHAN STEYN
Artist Biography
Johan Steyn is a South African sculptor born in Pretoria in 1968 and currently based in Muizenberg, Cape Town. Growing up in the studio of his father, batik artist Louis Steyn, meant that art and making were part of his life from an early age. His formal training began with an apprenticeship at the South African Mint, where he studied coin design, engraving and relief modelling before working professionally in design, sculpting and engraving for thirteen years.
Johan’s unusually diverse career has also included computer-aided automotive and industrial design, oil painting and eleven years working in laser research and advanced material processing at the CSIR. An invitation to attend a sculpture course became a defining moment. He discovered that clay offered him a more instinctive and immediate way to express his ideas, and since 2018 sculpture has become the primary focus of his practice.
Working from clay to bronze, Johan combines traditional sculptural methods with an intuitive creative process. Sometimes an image appears clearly in his imagination and is rapidly translated into a drawing or directly into clay; at other times, he begins what he calls “exploratory sculpting”, allowing the form to reveal itself through the making process. His sculptures are developed over internal and external armatures before being translated into bronze through the traditional lost-wax casting process.
The human form, wildlife and the sea are recurring subjects within Johan’s work. He is fascinated by human psychology, animals and the unpredictable movement of water - subjects he believes will continue to challenge and inspire him throughout his life. Underlying these themes is a concern with preservation: not only of the natural world, but also of those qualities within ourselves that allow us to remain human, connected and purposeful.
Johan’s ongoing collaboration with Art@Africa has been instrumental in the development of the Minki series. Through Minki and her encounters with animals and the natural world, his sculpture addresses themes ranging from marine and nature conservation to humanity’s relationship with a rapidly changing environment. Deliberately free from a specific cultural identity, Minki carries a universal message intended to resonate across cultures and generations.
For Johan, sculpture must be experienced in the round. Every silhouette and angle is considered so that the work continues to reveal itself as the viewer moves around it. His ambition is to create sculpture that transcends passing trends or ideologies and speaks instead through a universal language of emotion. Rooted in a South African sensibility yet intended for a global audience, his work reflects a lifelong pursuit of originality, craftsmanship and meaning.
Artist Statement
My work carries a message about preservation - preserving what is good in nature and what is good within us as human beings. The world changes incredibly quickly, and I feel driven to remind people of the importance of remaining human, protecting what we have and living with purpose.
My ideas arrive in different ways. Sometimes I see an image clearly in my imagination and immediately begin drawing or sculpting it. At other times the image is less certain, and I begin what I call exploratory sculpting. I work with the clay until the form starts revealing itself, allowing discovery to become part of the creative process.
The human form and psychology, animals and the sea continually fascinate me. I am particularly drawn to the randomness of water and to subjects that cannot easily be exhausted. I remain a student of these things, and that sense of continual discovery is an important part of why I create.
Through Minki, I have found a character capable of carrying many of the ideas that matter to me. She belongs to no single race or cultural group. Her stories can speak about marine conservation, nature, our changing environment and our relationship with other living beings. I see her as distinctly South African in origin, but universal in what she represents.
I want my sculptures to draw people in. A sculpture cannot be understood from a single viewpoint; you need to move around it, study its silhouette and allow it to reveal itself slowly. My aim is to create work that remains meaningful beyond the moment in which it was made - work that can still communicate through the universal language of emotion long into the future.
