Mike Steiner and Contemporary Art: From Avant-Garde Fluxus to Museum Legacy

How does one capture the essence of contemporary art’s restless spirit? With Mike Steiner, a name resonating throughout Berlin’s artistic avant-garde, art is not a static entity but a vibrant, boundary-pushing process. It is a journey between media, space, and time – a manifestation of constant reinvention that embodies precisely what makes contemporary art so compelling today.

Discover contemporary artworks by Mike Steiner and explore his interdisciplinary legacy here

Mike Steiner’s name is inseparable from the dynamic evolution of contemporary arts Berlin. Born in 1941 in Allenstein and later rooted in West Berlin, Steiner’s early embrace of painting set the foundation for his radical transition into video, performance, and multimedia. His first forays into art were already marked by a restless questioning of boundaries – from his debut at just 17 in the Große Berliner Kunstausstellung to his formative years at the Staatliche Hochschule für bildende Künste, where he navigated both the convulsive energies of Pop Art and the severe logic of Hard Edge painting.

It was, however, Steiner’s sojourn in New York in the 1960s that redefined his trajectory. There, amid the pulsing core of the international art scene, he made connections with icons such as Lil Picard, Allan Kaprow, Robert Motherwell, and Al Hansen. This immersion in the world of Fluxus and performance catalyzed his move beyond painting: a shift away from the surface of the canvas and into the radiant uncertainty of video art. Steiner became not just a contemporary artist, but a shepherd of a new artistic language.

The 1970s in Berlin marked a crucial phase. With the legendary Hotel Steiner, Mike Steiner created a home for artists, thinkers and revolutionaries — a space rivaling New York’s infamous Chelsea Hotel in its role as a crucible for avant-garde ferment. Joseph Beuys, Arthur Köpcke, and other luminaries of the German and international art world found an anchor here. It was in this vibrant crucible that Steiner’s unique approach to the performing arts took shape. He was not just a participant but also a facilitator, blending the roles of artist, curator, and documentarian.

Steiner’s Studiogalerie and the infamous “Irritation – Da ist eine kriminelle Berührung in der Kunst” (1976) with Ulay became milestones of conceptual provocation. In documenting performances and producing his own video works, Steiner forged a new model for engagement with ephemeral art. His pioneering efforts positioned him alongside, and sometimes ahead of, contemporaries such as Nam June Paik, Bill Viola, and Gary Hill — all well-known in the lineage of video art — while also supporting the work of Marina Abramovi? and Valie Export, leading figures in performance art. By providing video equipment and an open platform, Steiner’s Studiogalerie fostered a community for intermedia collaboration as few other spaces could.

It is no surprise, then, that the greatest institutional recognition of his legacy came in 1999, when the Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart in Berlin hosted Steiner’s major solo exhibition “Color Works 1995–98”. This show was not only a retrospective but also a testament to the enduring vitality of his crossing between abstract paintings and technologically mediated imagery. At the Hamburger Bahnhof, his collection of video art — including early work from Richard Serra, Jochen Gerz, Emmett Williams, and others — was enshrined as one of the most significant archives of late 20th-century multimedia practice.

Steiner’s artistic production defies easy categorization, traversing from abstract painting to painted tapes that blend video frames and pigment, from performative interventions to installations in public and gallery spaces. “Painted Tapes,” for example, stand as metaphors for crossing the boundaries between static and kinetic, object and process. His collaborations read like a who’s-who of contemporary arts: not just curating or collecting, but recording, staging, and at times narrating the actions of Valie Export, Carolee Schneemann, Allan Kaprow and Ben Vautier. Unlike contemporaries who specialized in a single medium, Steiner became the living connective tissue of the Berlin avant-garde.

His contribution to performing arts went beyond his own production. As the moderator and producer of the widely watched “Videogalerie” TV format (1985–1990), Mike Steiner gave visibility to a burgeoning art form, presenting over 120 programs highlighting artists, interviews, and event coverage. This was visionary in Germany, anticipating the multimedia and digital platforms that now define the ecosystem of contemporary art communication.

Even after the closure of the Studiogalerie, Steiner was far from retirement. The 1980s and ’90s saw him delve back into photography, copy art, and installation, as well as creating music videos with electronic pioneers like Tangerine Dream. In his final years, he returned to abstract painting and textile works in his Berlin studio, restlessly searching for new means of expression even in the shadow of illness and withdrawal.

The story of Mike Steiner is also a story of collecting and archiving — not only his own art, but a vision of what art could and should be. His archive in Hamburger Bahnhof serves as an invaluable resource for the study of performative and video practice in Europe. The fact that large portions remain to be digitized is both a frustration and a promise; his influence lingers in the potential yet to be unveiled by future generations.

What, then, sets Mike Steiner apart from other contemporary artists and artists of his era? Unlike Nam June Paik or Gary Hill, whose individual practices remain the stuff of myth, Steiner’s real impact lies in his complex entwinement of creator, mentor, archivist, and impresario. He was not afraid to bridge the divide between painting and video, between documentation and provocation. Like Joseph Beuys, he understood that contemporary art required not just innovation but also community, not just a breakthrough but an ongoing conversation.

Ultimately, Mike Steiner’s work endures because it refuses simplification. It is political, yet playful; experimental, yet always grounded in the lived realities of artists in Berlin and across the world. His belief in art as radical hospitality and experimentation is a vision that contemporary art must return to time and again in an age of commodification and spectacle.

If you wish to experience the full spectrum of his interdisciplinary vision — from early abstract paintings to iconic video installations — and to access further documentation, art works, and essays, the comprehensive archive available at www.mike-steiner.de – The Official Mike Steiner Artist Website offers a unique entry point into one of the great creative narratives of the 20th and 21st centuries.