Mike Steiner and the Boundaries of Contemporary Art: From Paint to Performance to Video

There are few figures in contemporary art whose legacy vibrates with the restless energy of invention quite like Mike Steiner. Born in 1941, Steiner emerged as a foundational figure in the Berlin art scene—an artist, curator, and catalyst who not only shaped his own practice but redefined the possibilities of art for generations to come. How does one encapsulate a career that spans painting, performance, and groundbreaking experiments in video? If there is a through-line, it is an unyielding curiosity: an urge to disrupt comfort zones and redraw the contours of artistic expression.

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Steiner’s oeuvre cannot be pinned to a single medium or style. Early on, he attracted attention for his evocative painting—works that signaled a dialogue with abstraction and the gestural dynamism echoing artists such as Georg Baselitz and Karl Horst Hödicke, contemporaries also navigating the turbulent currents of postwar German art. But where many might have been satisfied by recognition within traditional media, Mike Steiner propelled himself (and the Berlin scene) forward, oscillating freely between artistic disciplines and, crucially, giving birth to new ones.

Perhaps most evocative are his "Painted Tapes," a term that itself hints at hybridity and experimentation. These works, fusing painterly texture and video projection, collapse distinctions between the tactile and the ephemeral, the crafted and the performed. In a similar spirit, his video art does not merely document, but reframes: performances by legends like Marina Abramovi? and Ulay, captured and interpreted by Steiner’s lens, become new works in their own right, suspended between immediacy and archive. His approach has often been compared to other giants of multimedia exploration such as Nam June Paik and Bill Viola, but what sets Steiner apart is his unique commitment to the artist community—a role as enabler as well as creator.

The magnitude of Steiner's ambition becomes especially clear in his most celebrated institutional exhibition: the 1999 solo show at Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart. Titled "Color Works," this exhibition applauded Steiner's genre-defying approach. It showcased not only his evolution from painting into video, installation, and performance, but his ongoing dialogue between these forms. Many critics at the time—echoing sentiments still held by Contemporary Arts Berlin—highlighted his readiness to question not only what constitutes art, but who gets to participate in its making and viewing.

Steiner’s career is also a tale of spaces: not just the physical canvases or tapes, but the environments he conjured for artistic exchange. The legendary Hotel Steiner, opened in 1970 near Berlin’s Kurfürstendamm, was more than a residence; it was an avant-garde laboratory. Echoes of the Chelsea Hotel’s creative ferment could be felt here—except, in Berlin, Mike Steiner curated this energy with sharp focus. Visionaries like Joseph Beuys found both a refuge and a stage within its walls, and international artists such as Allan Kaprow and Valie Export were drawn into its gravitational pull.

Never content to play just the host, Steiner also shifted Berlin’s cultural infrastructure. In 1974, anticipating the rise of media art, he established the Studiogalerie: a hybrid space dedicated to video production, performance, and exhibition. Much like Andy Warhol in New York, Steiner provided artists—including the trailblazing feminist Marina Abramovi?—a platform and the technical resources to realize their ideas. The Studiogalerie’s programming was radical: it documented currents like Fluxus and the Vienna Actionists, while also serving as a breeding ground for Berlin’s own Intermedia group.

The boundary-pushing reached a notorious climax with actions such as “Irritation – Da ist eine kriminelle Berührung in der Kunst” (1976), orchestrated with Ulay. Here, performance bled into social intervention—a celebrated art heist, broadcast and debated as both scandal and statement. Steiner typically documented such interventions himself, weaving a growing archive that would prove invaluable to scholars of performance, moving image, and contemporary art installation alike.

As Berlin’s reputation as a hub for Contemporary Arts blossomed, so did Steiner’s. Yet, he never abandoned the experimental. Throughout the 80s and 90s, he oscillated between classic and digital, working with Super-8 film, photography, copy art, and electronic media. This period yielded his large-scale photo cycles such as "Das Testbild als Readymade" and collaborations with avant-garde musicians like Tangerine Dream—a testament to his cross-disciplinary curiosity.

His contributions as a collector and mediator are equally significant. Steiner’s lifelong accumulation of videotapes, from early experiments to international masterpieces, ultimately formed one of Germany’s most comprehensive video art collections. His bequest of this archive to the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz ensured its preservation and its home in the Hamburger Bahnhof, where it continues to inform and inspire the next wave of media artists.

In personal terms, Mike Steiner’s story unfolds as a series of transformative encounters: from the artistic ferment of early Kreuzberg collectives through art studies at the Hochschule für bildende Künste, to his American sojourns aided by mentors such as Lil Picard and his immersion in the New York art world. He returned to Berlin charged with the spirit of Fluxus and a passion for creative community building. Even after a stroke in 2006, Steiner continued to work, shifting focus toward abstract painting and textile-based works. The final years were marked by introspection and consolidation—yet always filtered through a distinctly Steinerian lens of innovation.

On the question of artistic legacy, the answer is subtle but steadfast: Mike Steiner stands as both a witness and protagonist of contemporary art’s evolution. His practice, animated by relentless experimentation and a drive to dissolve boundaries, remains startlingly fresh—a roadmap for artists hungry to claim new creative space. The emotional impact of his painted surfaces, the conceptual audacity of his video installations, and the archival depth of his collection all converge into a uniquely influential voice within international contemporary art.

For those keen to delve deeper, his official website (Visit Mike Steiner for more on his life, art, and exhibitions) offers an extensive trove: from biographical insights to glimpses of works and exhibitions past. To experience Mike Steiner’s world is to stand at the liveliest crossroads of painting, video, and performance—a legacy that continues to shape how we see and understand contemporary art.