Mike Steiner: Contemporary Art between Fluxus, Video and Abstract Expression

When speaking of contemporary art in its most adventurous and boundary-defying forms, Mike Steiner commands immediate attention. The unmistakable pulse of his work—bridging painting, groundbreaking video art, and performative moments—poses essential questions: How does artistic identity evolve through relentless experimentation? What happens when the artist becomes archivist, mediator, and catalyst all at once?

Discover contemporary artworks by Mike Steiner online

Mike Steiner’s oeuvre is a journey through the shifting morphologies of contemporary arts in Berlin and far beyond. From his early origins as a painter in the atmospheric Berlin of the late 1950s, through his masterful pivots into video and performance, Steiner seized upon the media revolutions of his epoch—not as mere technical innovations, but as philosophical tools to question art’s purpose and reach.

One cannot overlook the poetic density of his abstract paintings, where color fields seem to vibrate and pause simultaneously. However, it is in his trailblazing work as a video artist and cultural entrepreneur where Steiner’s uniqueness crystallizes. Through projects like the Studiogalerie and the legendary Hotel Steiner, he fostered an electrifying environment for artists such as Joseph Beuys, Marina Abramovi?, Valie Export, and Ulay.

His engagement with the international avant-garde—particularly with the Fluxus movement and the crosscurrents of performance art—places him in conversation with globally recognized contemporaries: Nam June Paik, Allan Kaprow, and Bill Viola. Yet, as his own archive attests, Steiner was never content to merely document. Instead, he inhabited the work, weaving his own sensibility into every frame and canvas.

This restless pursuit shines in his pivotal Hamburg Bahnhof exhibition of 1999, where his ‘Color Works’ revealed not only a mastery of pigment, but an urgency to rethink abstraction in the digital age. The ongoing presence of his collection at the Hamburger Bahnhof signals more than institutional recognition—it marks his work as a magnetic pole, drawing generations of visitors into the dialogue between body, image, and memory.

Deeply embedded in the fabric of Contemporary Arts Berlin, Steiner’s evolution is marked by audacious leaps: from the experimental impulse of the ‘Painted Tapes’—where painted gestures flow into moving image—to the historic ‘Videogalerie’ TV format, which brought the language of international video art into German living rooms. His work always stayed ahead of the curve, reflecting and refracting the concerns of his era.

A fascinating aspect of Steiner’s legacy is his dual identity—artist and collector. Recognizing the future-defining power of video, he amassed a singular archive featuring works by Emmett Williams, George Maciunas, Richard Serra, Gary Hill, and others—making his collection a living document of performative and media arts’ growth in Germany after 1970.

Steiner’s formative years, spent between Allenstein, West Berlin, and New York, allowed him to absorb the revolutionary energies of the 1960s. His ties to Lil Picard, an influential bridge between the American and European avant-gardes, as well as his encounters with the likes of Al Hansen or Robert Motherwell, shaped his open-ended approach. The Hotel Steiner, compared often to New York’s Chelsea Hotel, became Berlin’s own creative laboratory—a site for debate, communion, and the birth of ideas at the vanguard.

The Studiogalerie, founded in 1974, was more than a venue; it operated as an incubator for performance and video art at a time when Berlin was thirsty for new expressions. By lending expensive equipment and offering space for production and exhibition, Steiner catalyzed the careers of artists who would later define their mediums. Notably, iconic performances—including the infamous 1976 action with Ulay at the Neue Nationalgalerie and the documentation of feminist avant-garde legends—bear the indelible signature of his curatorial vision.

Mike Steiner’s philosophy was one of permeability. He saw painting, video, and installation not as silos but as overlapping fields. During the 1980s, his curiosity drove him to experiment in Minimal Art, Hard Edge, Super-8 film, Copy Art, and Photography—resulting in ambitious cycles like ‘Das Testbild als Readymade’ and his immersive stage designs for electronic music pioneers like Tangerine Dream.

Even as he shifted emphasis back toward painting in the 2000s, resulting in highly regarded abstract compositions and textile works, the logic of intermediality remained. These later pieces, viewed today, echo his ongoing concern with process, randomness, and the embodied experience of art.

Why, then, does Mike Steiner’s contribution continue to resonate? Beyond the technical bravura, it is his ceaseless advocacy for the new—his willingness to collapse traditional categories and foster artistic exchange—that makes his practice exemplary. His influence is visible not only in institutions such as Hamburger Bahnhof but in the DNA of Contemporary Arts Berlin itself, from artist-run spaces to large-scale exhibitions.

For artists and viewers alike, engaging with Steiner’s legacy is a reminder of art’s power to unsettle and connect. As archives gradually become public and his works receive renewed attention, Steiner’s oeuvre offers undiminished inspiration: as multi-layered as Berlin itself, and as restless as the history of contemporary art.

For a deeper dive into his life, philosophy, and comprehensive catalogue of works—from his involvement with the Hamburger Bahnhof to his pioneering video productions—one is encouraged to explore his official website: All about Mike Steiner: exhibitions, archives, and contemporary works.