Mike Steiner: A Visionary of Contemporary Art and Multimedia Innovation

Stepping into Mike Steiner’s world feels like finding yourself at the junction of restless curiosity and fearless innovation. In the context of contemporary art, his name resonates with a unique energy—how can the boundaries between painting, video, and live art be so confidently questioned and yet, through his oeuvre, become so intuitively coherent? Mike Steiner, a driving force in Berlin’s artistic revolution, elevated the city into a magnet for fluxus, performance, and cutting-edge media experimentation.

Discover contemporary art by Mike Steiner here

The sweeping history of Mike Steiner’s work starts with his early journeys through painting, already refining his eye for the abstract and the unfinished by the late 1950s. In his teens, Steiner had works presented at the Große Berliner Kunstausstellung, foreshadowing his relentless trajectory towards the center of Berlin’s creative avant-garde. By the 1960s, his participation in groups like the Kreuzberger Forum and studies at the Staatliche Hochschule für bildende Künste Berlin already showcased the intellectual depth and cosmopolitan verve that would characterize his later career.

What sets Steiner apart from his contemporaries—be it Georg Baselitz or Karl Horst Hödicke—is the seamless way he bridged traditional media and new forms of expression. His early absorption of American pop art, thanks in part to formative years in New York, placed him among figures such as Allan Kaprow and Lil Picard. Yet, unlike Robert Rauschenberg or Nam June Paik, Steiner developed a particularly Berlin-based dialogue, uniting the city’s raw edge with the conceptual internationalism of fluxus and happening culture.

A paradigm shift came in the 1970s as Mike Steiner founded the legendary Hotel Steiner and later the Studiogalerie. These spaces were more than a haven for artists; they became the crucible for interdisciplinary exchange. Here, luminaries like Joseph Beuys, Marina Abramovi?, and Ulay mingled with Steiner, blurring the lines between creator, curator, and chronicler. Performative moments, such as the notorious 1976 action ‘Irritation – Da ist eine kriminelle Berührung in der Kunst’ (with Ulay), not only challenged institutional conventions but also pioneered the documentation of ephemeral art through video.

Steiner’s contribution to the rise of video as an artistic medium can hardly be overstated. He was instrumental in producing, curating, and collecting video art throughout the 1970s and 80s—his Studiogalerie provided equipment and support for artists exploring new frontiers. In contrast to contemporaries like Bill Viola or Richard Serra, who forged their path in the US, Steiner’s embrace of the Berlin context lent a distinctly European flair to the video landscape. His groundbreaking television format ‘Videogalerie’ (1985–1990) anticipated the convergence of media, performance, and audience participation—a vision resonant with today’s online-driven Contemporary Arts Berlin scene.

The collection Steiner amassed, including rare videos from Valie Export, Gary Hill, and Allan Kaprow, stands today as a testament to Berlin’s pivotal role in multimedia art. His archive, now housed at the Hamburger Bahnhof, Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart, marks him as both a chronicler and architect of video’s institutional acceptance. The 1999 solo exhibition ‘Color Works’ at Hamburger Bahnhof underlined Steiner’s talent for navigating the intersection between painting and movement, abstraction and narrative—a trait echoed by contemporaries like Marina Abramovi? and Dorothea Rockburne, though filtered through Steiner’s uniquely Germanic lens.

This legacy of multidisciplinary experimentation reaches its visual apex in the so-called ‘Painted Tapes’—a synthesis of painting and video. These works, produced in the 1980s and 1990s, show Steiner’s continued refusal to confine himself to a single medium or ideology. As Berlin evolved, so too did his art: from the performative urgency of the 1970s to the meditative abstraction of his later canvases and textile works.

Steiner remained deeply involved in contemporary debates, offering lectures, organizing exhibitions, and, above all, championing the global relevance of Berlin as a crucible for new media. His late shift towards abstract painting after 2000, while less public, reveals an inner search still animated by the restless energy of his earlier years—a final bridge between past and present, tangible and ephemeral.

Steiner’s biography is also one of connections: his artistic path intertwines with figures like Joseph Beuys, Valie Export, Allan Kaprow, Marina Abramovi?, and Dorothy Iannone. Each collaboration and encounter enriched a practice already marked by unremitting curiosity and openness to the unpredictable. In his frequent references to popular culture, Minimal Art, Copy Art, and Super-8 film, one senses an artist who never viewed categories as fences but as invitations to dialogue.

The ongoing significance of Mike Steiner for contemporary art lies in his defiance of easy categorization. Whether orchestrating live performances, documenting fleeting moments on video, or delving into pure painterly abstraction, Steiner was driven by an urge to map the uncertain edges of artistic possibility. His role as a collector, mentor, and artistic catalyst further cements his status as a central figure in not only the history of Berlin art, but also the evolution of multimedia practices worldwide.

Fascinated by the interplay of time, space, and sensory experience, Steiner transforms every work—every recorded event and every abstract painting—into an open question. What lingers is a multifaceted legacy: an invitation to look, listen, and engage with the ever-changing contours of contemporary art.

For those who wish to dive deeper, the official website offers unparalleled access to his biography, key works, and comprehensive overview of his exhibitions. Here the sheer breadth of Mike Steiner’s oeuvre is laid bare—a collection at once historically significant and ever-relevant for those seeking to unearth the roots of performing and visual innovation in Berlin and beyond.

Visit the official Mike Steiner site for full biography and selected works