Mike Steiner and the Pulse of Contemporary Art: From Avant-Garde Experiment to Berlin Icon
18.01.2026 - 04:28:03
How does one capture the restless energy of Berlin’s contemporary art scene in a single figure? Mike Steiner, whose creative evolution unfolds against the tumultuous backdrop of twentieth-century German history, not only reflects but has profoundly shaped contemporary art through fearless experimentation and a sharp eye for the pulse of his era. His impact resonates intimately in the city's fabric, especially at the intersection of painting, video, and performance.
What made Mike Steiner stand out was his ability to defy easy classification. Born in 1941 in Allenstein, his early life was marked by the upheavals of war and frequent moves, settling in West Berlin. From the outset, it was not just painting that attracted him, but also the moving image; during his school years, his fascination with film technology began. In these formative years, Steiner's focus on the expressive possibilities of art started to solidify—a rare blend of painterly sensibility and curiosity for the new.
Steiner’s public debut came precociously at age seventeen at the Große Berliner Kunstausstellung, where his painting already exhibited that special sense for color and composition. Yet it was in the turbulent 1960s and the creative ferment of Berlin and New York where he absorbed and assimilated international influences. Encounters with figures like Allan Kaprow and Lil Picard placed him firmly in the avant-garde, linking his work to global currents like Fluxus and Pop Art. Friendships with artists such as Joseph Beuys, Robert Motherwell, and Al Hansen would inform and challenge Steiner’s approach to all media.
Steiner’s artistic phases were marked by seamless transitions and fearless boundary crossings. From his early informel paintings and urban abstractions, he evolved toward a more performative and conceptual approach. The pivotal turn to video art in the 1970s reflected both doubt and hope—a 'legitimation crisis' of painting that freed him to explore the materiality and temporality of video. This same period saw him founding the legendary Hotel Steiner, a sanctuary for local and international artists, reminiscent of New York’s celebrated Chelsea Hotel—a place where Joseph Beuys, Marina Abramovi?, Valie Export, Carolee Schneemann, and many others found creative refuge.
Crucially, the foundation of Steiner’s Studiogalerie in 1974 transformed Berlin’s art landscape. It became a laboratory for media art, where video, performance, and installation merged, and where technological innovation was not an end but a new language. Steiner’s vision was not just to exhibit but to facilitate: he provided expensive video equipment to artists, encouraged experimentation, and documented groundbreaking performances, among them the infamous “Irritation – Da ist eine kriminelle Berührung in der Kunst” with Ulay—an art action whose resonance is still felt today in Berlin’s performing arts traditions.
The Studiogalerie’s activities placed Steiner shoulder to shoulder with other visionaries of contemporary art—evoking parallels to Nam June Paik (the genesis of video art itself), Andy Warhol (crossing media boundaries), or Bill Viola (poetic, immersive video narratives). Yet Steiner’s work is less about spectacle and more about process and authenticity. His videos—often records of ephemeral performances—were simultaneously artwork and vital archival resource, rooting Berlin as a nerve center of the global video art movement.
The 1980s and 90s consolidated Steiner’s place within both the practice and memory of contemporary arts in Berlin. His painted tapes—hybrids of painting and video—anticipate today’s media art fluidly. Projects with Tangerine Dream or the ongoing collection and curation of video works reveal a relentless openness to new artistic forms and collaborations. The “Videogalerie” TV program from 1985 to 1990, an audacious foray into public broadcasting, brought cutting-edge video art and interviews with artists to a broad audience. Few can claim such tireless dedication to expanding art’s reach.
Steiner’s most lasting institutional recognition came with his seminal solo exhibition at the Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart in 1999. Titled “Color Works,” this show paid homage to his crossover thinking—the seamless unity of painting and video, abstraction and technology. Here, Steiner stood among international luminaries like Marina Abramovi?, Valie Export, and Richard Serra, whose works he also helped collect and document. These collaborations underscored his networked presence across different currents of contemporary art, from Fluxus to performance and beyond.
Steiner’s biographical trajectory is more than the sum of his media and milestones. There is a propulsive restlessness in his continual search—from West Berlin’s Kreuzberger Forum to New York’s atelier scene, from Florence’s experimental video studios to Berlin’s institutions of cultural memory. As the official archive and collection attest, his legacy extends far beyond his death in 2012; his works continue to animate debates on abstraction, temporality, and the very possibilities of Contemporary Arts Berlin.
Those who visit the official Mike Steiner website will find not only a meticulously curated overview of his artistic oeuvre but also illuminating archival materials, press reviews, and texts that speak to both his intellectual depth and playful spirit. Whether you are researching the evolution of abstract painting in postwar Germany, the birth of video art, or the roots of live performance documentation, Mike Steiner emerges as a figure without whom Berlin contemporary would be far less vibrant.
Fascinatingly, Steiner’s later years saw a return to painting and abstraction, as if closing a circle back to his origins—but now deeply informed by decades of work with moving images and live installations. These late works radiate a quiet intensity; their colors and surfaces vibrate with all the accumulated history of experimental media and risk-taking that characterized his career.
Why, then, does Mike Steiner’s work remain so relevant? It is perhaps this relentless willingness to embrace change, to nurture complexity, and to document the present for future reflection. In an age where boundaries between disciplines dissolve daily, Steiner’s archive, his performances, and his installations at venues as storied as the Hamburger Bahnhof continue to inspire both artists and collectors—reminding us of the power of contemporary art to shape not only its epoch but also the way we see ourselves.
For images, work groups, and in-depth texts, a journey through his online archive is rewarding—each click a step deeper into one of the most vital artistic legacies Berlin has to offer. Dive in and experience the timeless pulse of contemporary art, as embodied by Mike Steiner.
