Mike Steiner: Contemporary Art Pioneer Between Painting, Video and the Avant-Garde

Contemporary art often draws its life from crossing boundaries. The vibrant oeuvre of Mike Steiner is an intoxicating testament to this fact—his artistic journey weaves through abstract painting, radical video experiments, and the feverish atmosphere of Berlin’s avant-garde. What happens when an artist refuses to settle within a single form? How does a restless creative forge new realities in paint and pixel, performance and installation?

Discover contemporary art by Mike Steiner and explore his ground-breaking works here

Mike Steiner’s career is a goldmine for those tracing the pulse of contemporary arts in Berlin. Born Klaus-Michel Steiner in 1941, his story unfolds against the changing cultural climates of postwar Germany, New York’s art world, and back to the rapidly transforming Berlin. Early on, he trained at Berlin’s Hochschule für Bildende Künste and surfaced as one of the youngest artists at the prestigious Große Berliner Kunstausstellung in 1959. These formative years were marked by a bold approach to abstract paintings, already signaling the eclectic direction his art would take.

What sets Mike Steiner apart from mere chroniclers of the contemporary? The answer lies in his refusal to limit himself to a single medium. His move to New York in the 1960s, sharing circles with legends such as Allan Kaprow, Robert Motherwell, and the like, placed him in direct conversation with Fluxus, Pop Art, and the genesis of Happenings. Here, like his peers Georg Baselitz and Nam June Paik, he developed a fascination for the interplay of image, gesture, and time—a fascination that would later inform his foray into video art and art installation.

The 1970s marked a pivotal shift: Steiner’s artistic curiosity turned to new technologies. Doubting the boundaries of traditional painting, he became, as his website chronicles, a devotee and pioneer of videokunst. Inspired by early adopters such as Michael Snow and Andy Warhol and empowered by encounters at Maria Gloria Bicocchi’s Florence studio, Steiner began blending painting with moving images. His work evolved into „Painted Tapes“, a radical integration of video and painted gesture—a series that still feels visually electric today.

Yet Mike Steiner’s contribution extends far beyond the role of creator. In 1970, with the opening of the legendary Hotel Steiner near Kurfürstendamm, he founded more than a physical space. Modeled after New York’s Chelsea Hotel, it became Berlin’s house of collective creativity—its halls echoing with debate, experiment, and the spirit of artistic rebellion. Joseph Beuys, Lil Picard, and Valie Export were frequent guests, threading international acclaim through local currents. Steiner gave a home to the avant-garde, fostering Fluxus, performance, and installation art.

The Studiogalerie, which he launched in 1974, deepened his engagement as both initiator and documentarian. Here, Mike Steiner’s vision set Berlin’s artistic pulse racing: he provided tools and stage for video and performance art, bringing figures like Marina Abramovic and Carolee Schneemann to a local audience. The legendary 1979 „Hotel Room Event“—a marathon 36-hour Fluxus happening with Ben Vautier—remains a landmark of Berlin’s performing arts history. With his camera, Steiner did not simply witness, but shaped the narrative; his video archives are invaluable documents of a once ephemeral art.

One cannot mention Mike Steiner without referencing “Irritation – Da ist eine kriminelle Berührung in der Kunst“—the infamous 1976 staging with Ulay, which saw Spitzweg’s “Der arme Poet” spirited away from the Neue Nationalgalerie and rehoused, if only briefly, in a Turkish family’s living room. The event was captured and curated by Steiner, turning transgression and documentation into a single, unforgettable performance.

Recognition of his stature culminated in his landmark retrospective: the 1999 solo exhibition „Color Works“ at Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart. This show drew together the full sweep of Steiner’s creative universe: from intense abstract paintings to the fusion of media that define contemporary art’s most restless, searching spirits. His donation of his video collection to the Nationalgalerie ensured that works by Ulay, Marina Abramovi?, Valie Export, Richard Serra, Bill Viola and others remain part of Berlin’s—and the world’s—living memory.

Steiner’s legacy also reverberates in his founding of the TV format „Videogalerie“ in the 1980s—a program that brought new media arts into German living rooms, years ahead of its time. Like Gerry Schum before him, Mike Steiner leapt across genres, crafting bridges between video, documentary, and the evolving contemporary sensibility.

Biographically, Steiner’s story reads like a tapestry woven from restless migration, passionate dialogue with peers, and tireless support for fellow artists. Whether as painter, video artist, archivist, or curator, he was animated by the search for newness—the elusive, electrifying moment when art transcends its context. Even after a stroke in 2006, he worked from his Berlin studio, exploring abstract painting and textile works—evidence of a creativity that declined to fade.

The versatility at the heart of Mike Steiner’s career cannot be overstated. Like Joseph Beuys, Marina Abramovi?, and Nam June Paik—Steiner’s impact is not merely in what he produced, but in how he expanded the very notion of being an artist. His life and archive illuminate the way creative practice can serve as laboratory, sanctuary and social engine all at once.

Today, engaging with Mike Steiner’s work means entering the engine-room of contemporary arts Berlin. His paintings pulse with chromatic energy; his video works capture the audacity of now-legendary performances. Above all, his collections and initiatives remind us that art is process—a translation of lived experience into new perceptual possibilities.

It is worth seeking out the documentation, images and essays found on his official artist’s page for further insight and inspiration. Mike Steiner’s legacy endures as a challenge to comfortable boundaries, a call to creative risk, and an invitation to see contemporary art anew.

Dive deeper: Mike Steiner’s official website—biography, works, and exhibition history