Born in Dunedin in 1952 Stevens graduated with honours from the Otago School of Art in 1973. He then made several trips to Europe and during the first studied at Exeter College of Art, England. He has a specific interest in the trawling of memory for narratives. People and objects become props in a theatrical space.

While his work is subject oriented it is pictorially driven as Eion has an abiding interest in the devices of visual play. Eion Stevens has exhibited regularly throughout New Zealand since 1979, and his work is included in important public and corporate collections.

In 1999 a survey of his work was mounted at the James Wallace Trust Gallery, Auckland. He works as a fulltime artist and lives in Christchurch.