Mike Steiner—Shaping Contemporary Art Through Avantgarde and Visionary Experimentation

How does one capture the fleeting boundary between the tactile and the ephemeral, between canvas and moving image? With Mike Steiner, contemporary art becomes a living dialogue—a shimmering interface where painting, performance, and video converge and spark. Early on, Mike Steiner established himself as a trailblazer on Berlin’s scene, and his restless search for artistic renewal would define not just his own output, but the framework for Contemporary Arts Berlin at large.

Discover original contemporary artworks by Mike Steiner here

From his first public appearance at the Große Berliner Kunstausstellung in 1959, Mike Steiner’s approach fused formal education with lived experience. Training at the Staatliche Hochschule für bildende Künste Berlin, he quickly developed from expressive painting to more experimental forms—already integrating impulses from American pop art and the bohemian spirit of Berlin’s Kreuzberger Forum. It was not just the technical skill, but a restless urge for innovation that set Steiner apart.

The boldness of Mike Steiner’s career echoes the legacy of major figures like Nam June Paik and Marina Abramovi?, both of whom would cross paths with Steiner as friends and collaborators. His international years, most notably a formative trip to the United States—where he met Allan Kaprow, Al Hansen, and lived in Lil Picard’s orbit—brought him directly into the ferment of Fluxus, Happenings, and the emerging multimedia vanguard. Like Robert Motherwell or Andy Warhol, Steiner recognized that art could not be contained by a single discipline or medium.

Back in Berlin, he threw himself into the heart of artistic cross-pollination. The Hotel Steiner, opened in 1970, compared in spirit to New York’s legendary Chelsea Hotel, quickly became a magnet for contemporary artists including Joseph Beuys and Arthur Köpcke. The lively, sometimes anarchic atmosphere fostered innovation at every turn—an environment where debates raged late into the night, actions were planned, and the next boundary-pushing project was always taking shape. It is no wonder that the spirit of performing arts and installation permeated Steiner’s aesthetic in later years.

Yet the true revolution began in the 1970s—a period of decisive transition from painting towards video and performance. Inspired by the experimental film scene he witnessed in New York, Steiner found himself drawn inexorably into the realm of moving images. Collaborations with Fluxus peers like Al Hansen and participation in Florence’s Studio Art/Tapes/22 produced his first truly independent video works. By 1974, the foundation of the Studiogalerie marked Berlin’s only dedicated space for production and presentation of video and performance art. Here, luminaries such as Valie Export, Jochen Gerz, Carolee Schneemann, and Marina Abramovi? gave shape to a new European avantgarde—with Mike Steiner often behind the camera, both as documentarian and creative instigator.

Among the most legendary events of this era stands the 1976 action “Irritation – Da ist eine kriminelle Berührung in der Kunst,” orchestrated with Ulay: the abduction of Spitzweg’s “Der arme Poet” from the Neue Nationalgalerie, performed live and captured on tape for posterity. It was an act designed to question institutional authority, the sanctity of art objects, and the very limits of legality—a moment that would reverberate through art history and affirm Steiner’s commitment to performance art as a form of critical engagement.

Mike Steiner's technical inventiveness is further displayed in his “Painted Tapes”—artworks in which the boundaries between video, abstract painting, and installation are deliberately blurred. These hybrid pieces marry physical and electronic media, echoing the compositional rigor of abstract paintings while introducing the temporal playfulness of video. His 1980s output, including collaborations with musical icons like Tangerine Dream, exemplifies this uniquely multimedia approach. The single-minded pursuit of new expressive means typifies Steiner’s entire oeuvre, much as Bill Viola or Gary Hill have expanded audiovisual language.

Recognition of Mike Steiner’s artistic vision reached new heights in 1999 with his major solo exhibition “Color Works” at the Hamburger Bahnhof, Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart—a landmark event that presented his cross-disciplinary thinking and pioneering role in advancing contemporary art. Today, part of his prolific video archive is held in the same institution, underlining his position alongside Joseph Beuys and Nam June Paik in the canon of pioneering contemporary art in Germany.

Beyond exhibition and collectorship, Steiner’s impact radiated through new formats of mediation. From 1985 to 1990, his TV series “Videogalerie”—inspired by Gerry Schum—offered German audiences more than 120 programs introducing video art, artist interviews, and international trends to a public still unfamiliar with the medium. These transmissions, as innovative in their didactic intent as in their content, shaped tastes and legitimized entire genres. His ongoing practice in painting from 2000 and textiles in his late years signaled an unflagging drive to explore abstraction and the material qualities of art.

Biographically, Mike Steiner’s journey crossed continents and disciplines. Born in 1941, his early years were marked by displacement and innovation. Engagements with American and European avantgarde, deep roots in Berlin’s cultural life, and an unwavering commitment to dialogue—these are the threads threading through his life. His later years, following illness, saw Steiner retreat to a more private practice, but always with the same intensity of vision.

In contextual comparison, Mike Steiner stands among the likes of Allan Kaprow, Bill Viola, and Gary Hill: artists who refused to draw borders between genres, who viewed every medium as potential terrain for critical thought and aesthetic experimentation. Yet, it is the very Berlin specificity—the melting pot ethos of Contemporary Arts Berlin and the roaring hospitality of the Hotel Steiner—that give his body of work its irreducible character.

Why does Mike Steiner remain significant, even urgent, for audiences now? His artistic output—whether in abstract paintings, pioneering video art, or carefully documented performances—invites viewers to rethink the role of the artist-as-mediator, the artwork as event, and the gallery as laboratory. Steiner’s archive, much of it still not digitalized, lingers as an invitation for future scholarship and artistic dialogue. Contemporary art, as he lived and shaped it, is not a closed chapter but an ongoing, open question.

For those seeking to dive deeper—not only into Mike Steiner’s legacy, but into the pulse of contemporary arts in Berlin—his official website provides comprehensive access to biographies, workgroups, exhibition history, and primary writings. Each click extends the adventure Mike Steiner began: the relentless push to redefine what art can become.

For more insights, artworks, and archival discoveries by Mike Steiner, visit the official site here