Alexandra Steiner
"Making the invisible visible — an artist on the cusp of the visible and invisible world."
Artist, Biologist &
Cosmic Explorer
Alexandra Steiner is a multi-talented artist, biologist, near-death experiencer, and researcher of the interdimensional shamanic dimensions and fabrics of the cosmos. Born 1970 in Lower Austria, her practice weaves together decades of scientific fieldwork, sacred site visits across the globe, and a unique handprinting technique rooted in paleolithic cave art.
During her years as university assistant in ethnobotany, ethnomycology and pharmacognosy, microscopic work played a central role — fascination with the micro world that would become the seed of her artistic method. It was her then three-year-old daughter who first inspired Alexandra to experiment with materials including red ochre collected from sacred sites worldwide.
"An artist dives deep into worlds unknown and unfamiliar to people, and it is an artist's job to translate these worlds, to make people acquainted with the unknown."
1990–97: Studies of Biology (Ethnobotany) and Visual Art in Mexico (Universidad de Mexico, S.C.d.l.C.), Guatemala (Universidad del Valle), and Vienna (Universität Wien). 1997: Master of Sciences, University of Vienna.
Study trips spanning Latin America, Asia, and Europe since 1994. Training as Family Constellation Facilitator (2007/08) and Painting Room Facilitator with Arno Stern in Vienna and Paris (2009/10).
2021: Co-founder of artist collective Sirius A&B (with Brooke Lizotte). 2021–2024: Internationally touring exhibition and performance THE WATERS. Sound:Images.
Cosmic Mycelium —
Handprints of the Ancients
Over 15 years, Alexandra has perfected a technique connecting paleolithic handprint cave art with the present — intuitively following ancient ancestral echoes through space and time. Her work explores the mycelial interface of the visible and invisible realms: visible form dissolving into filaments of invisible energy, on both micro- and macroscopic levels.
The Handprint as Cosmic Seed
The primal handprint — one of humanity's oldest artistic gestures — is the starting point. In Steiner's work it is not a signature of existence but a seed for infinite expansion: like a mycelium spore, branching into fractal networks mirroring the hidden structures of life, neural pathways, and the cosmic web of galaxies.
Mycelium: The Language of Consciousness
Fungi are the great connectors of the cosmos. Steiner perceives dark matter and dark energy as a gigantic invisible mycelium — a spider web connecting everything in the universe. She cultivates it, studies its growth, and translates its organic logic into paint, creating hybrids of biology and myth.
Art as a Living Archive
Working in layers of self-collected sacred red ochre, earth pigments, organic binders, and mycelial cultures, each piece is a living dialogue between artist, materials, and viewer. The paintings invite the viewer to step into the mycelial network — star portals, meditations, and invitations to perceive the world as a single, interconnected web of life.
"These works are not just paintings —
they are star portals, meditations, and invitations
to step into a single, interconnected web of life."
Series & Projects
micro:macro · cosmos
The most recent series exploring the mycelial interface of the visible and invisible realms. Many layers of earth pigments and oil applied in the old tradition of cave art create a multidimension into which the viewer is immediately drawn and interwoven. Visible form dissolves into filaments of invisible energy, both on the micro- and macroscopic level.
water
A series focusing on the fascinating element of water — source for all life — by incorporating water from different places on this planet: sea water from the Atlantic and Pacific Ocean, sweet water from rivers including the Danube and Ganges, and from special springs such as Chalice Well, Glastonbury, UK.
earth · moon flowers
Works rooted in earth's pigments and natural cycles — paintings that trace the relationship between terrestrial and lunar energies. Self-collected ochre and materials from sacred sites around the world are transformed into luminous, layered compositions that bridge the material and the celestial.
THE WATERS · Sound:Images
An internationally touring immersive exhibition and performance expanding visual art into the 4th dimension by adding music and sound to projections of paintings. The mythological and cosmic stories of water and funga are narrated, sung and musically performed — creating a trance-like and psychedelic dimension for the audience. Performed in Austria, Seattle, Hawai'i, and Vienna's Bösendorfer Salon.
MYCELIA · Nature's Cosmic Architects
The next immersive concept, continuing the exploration of fungal networks as cosmic metaphor — an audiovisual journey into the primordial architecture of consciousness, life, and matter.
Scientific Depth
Alexandra's art practice is inseparable from decades of scientific work — fieldwork, research, and advising that span mycology, ethnobotany, ecology, and environmental science.
Mayan Ethnobotany
2 years of field studies in Central America, interviewing Mayan communities in Guatemala and Mexico on the use and cultivation of medicinal plants. Published as a university thesis (University of Vienna). Deeply connected her to Mayan cosmology and shamanic traditions.
European Folk Medicine
3-year unpublished PhD study on Traditional European Medicine, focusing on sundew (Drosera sp.) — its use, cultivation, and effects. Fieldwork across Finland, UK, Ireland, Austria, and Germany opened the world of European folk mythology and cosmologies.
Plant Microscopy & Pharmacognosy
4 years as university assistant and tutor in pharmacognosy and plant microscopy, providing in-depth experience of plant anatomy and microscopic work — the direct foundation of her visual art technique.
Ecology & Environmental Protection
6 years in the Austrian OEPUL environmental protection program; 2 years as botanical supervisor in the Natura 2000 program. 10+ years as Effective Microorganisms (EM) adviser with deep expertise in the world of microorganisms.
Organic Herbs & Global Fieldwork
5 years as scientific adviser for the Organic Herb Trading Company, UK — field trips to herb producers in Mexico, Guatemala, India, Egypt, Austria, Germany, Slovakia, Czechia, and France.
Garden for Generations
Established a biological sanctuary / station in her own garden — agricultural land transformed over 50 years into a living study of nature's power to self-heal and regenerate, including cultivation and soil mycoremediation with different fungi. Adviser for Greenacre, UK on biodiversity-rich forest gardens.
Exhibition History
Publications & Media
- "Cultivation and use of 4 Mayan medicinal plants" — University of Vienna Publishing
- "The Beings"
- "Different Paths to Source"
- "El&Al's Adventures"
- "El&Al's Abenteuer"
Experiencer and Scientific Adviser in the docu-series INTERDIMENSIONAL.
interdimensionaldoc.com
- "W.O.W. – Worlds of Wonder"
- "The Golden Book – Everything A Psychonaut Needs To Know About The Cosmos"
- "Wotsch"
- "Mrs Moon and Mr Sun"
The Ur-Pattern
At the heart of my practice is the ur-pattern: the fractal repetition of the handprint-mycelium motif throughout the micro- and macrocosmos — a design that repeats itself across scales, cultures, and dimensions.
This pattern is ancient, biological, organic, cosmic and psychedelic. By merging these archetypal symbols with scientific inquiry and contemporary art, I seek to reclaim the handprint as a universal language — one that speaks to our shared humanity, our collective subconscious, our connection to the earth, and our place in the cosmos.
My work is an offering — a way to reawaken the ancient knowing that we are not separate from nature, but threads in its vast, mycelial tapestry. It is an invitation to see the world through the fractal eyes of funga and formless, shapeless consciousness: to recognize the handprint in the galaxy, the mycelium in body, mind and spirit, and the cosmos in the darkness of the cave.