Steina, born Steinunn Briem Bjarnadottir, in Iceland in 1940, lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. She trained as a violinist in Reykjavik and Prague, and emigrated to New York City in 1965 with her life partner, Woody Vasulka. Initially working as a freelance musician, she began to focus on video in 1970, and in 1971, cofounded The Electronic Kitchen (later The Kitchen), the legendary alternative art space. After moving to Buffalo in 1973, Steina helped develop the production lab at the Center for Media Study at SUNY Buffalo.

Steina has shown at leading institutions internationally, including the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh (now the Carnegie Museum of Art); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, among others. Important collections with her work include the Museum of Modern Art, New York; Smithsonian American Art Museum; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; the Julia Stoschek Foundation; Tate, London; Thyssen-Bornemisza Art Contemporary; and ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe. Awards and grants include: Rockefeller Foundation and NEA grants (1982); the Maya Deren Award (1992); the Siemens Media Arts Prize from ZKM | Center for Art and Media Karlsruhe, Germany (1995); as well as an honorary doctorate from the San Francisco Art Institute (1998).