We sat on a large porch in Zilker, a “safe distance” across from each other — we had met for the first time on this same porch just under a year ago at an art show for Big Medium’s West Austin Studio Tours (this was days before WEST 2020 became officially postponed). Steef laid on the porch staring at the trees, sweaty but alive from a day of building garden beds – a personal community initiative Steef and partner in crime, Sculptor GD Wright had taken upon themselves as COVID became an increasingly normalized word. It’s this similar dedication to activeness, communal ethos and over-all effectiveness that she brings to her practice and the Austin’s contemporary art scene.
Steef is Dutch-born and has only been in Texas for a few years — yet her work has appeared all over the city, she was one of The LINE Hotel Austin’s first Artists-in-Residence, and most recently earned the heavily competed for solo show at Women and Their Work. Her experimental, yet technically intentional, processes on fabric cultivate a jovial refinement and treat daily consumerist iconography as both textiles and clues to how we think and move.