A high-gain, low-sidelobe, beam-steerable antenna includes a liquid-crystal loaded composite right- and left-handed (CRLH) metamaterial array. The metamaterial array includes a pair of first and second rows of unit cells, to propagate a radiation pattern along a first axis. One row can operate in left-hand mode, and the other row can operate in right-hand mode. Each unit cell in the metamaterial array includes a volume of liquid crystal and at least one isolated ground patch. The isolated ground patch being is as a virtual ground connection capable of generating a potential difference for tuning the dielectric value of the liquid crystal. The first and second rows are oriented end-to-end along the first axis and separated from each other by a first distance. The antenna includes a phase variable liquid-crystal loaded lens that is controllable to be phase variable along a second axis orthogonal to the first axis.