Mike Steiner and Contemporary Art – Visionary Between Moving Images and Abstract Canvas

Where does contemporary art begin to pulse under the fingertips of a true pioneer? With Mike Steiner, the boundaries blur—paintings seem to vibrate, and video becomes palpable. Known as a painter, performer, and, above all, as one of the leading minds of contemporary art in Berlin, Steiner’s work invites the viewer to rediscover and rethink the relationship between image, movement, and space.

Discover Contemporary Artworks by Mike Steiner here

In the world of Contemporary Arts Berlin, few names resonate as profoundly as Mike Steiner. His early works, showcased as early as 1959 at the Große Berliner Kunstausstellung, already hinted at an unwavering experimentation—balancing between classical painting, abstraction, and later, an almost obsessive curiosity for the new medium of video. Steiner’s color fields, often marked by abstract bravura, bespeak his ongoing dialogue with modernism, while his extension into video and performance defined an era eager for avant-garde renewal. Just as contemporaries such as Joseph Beuys or Nam June Paik paved new paths in art, so did Steiner shape the city’s creative legacy through a unique blend of image and action.

The transition from painterly tradition to media innovation unfolded decisively in 1970s Berlin. After formative years as a student at the Staatliche Hochschule für bildende Künste Berlin—alongside journeys to New York and experiences with artists like Allan Kaprow and Lil Picard—Steiner returned to a city simmering with creative energy. The foundation of Hotel Steiner in 1970, soon a haven for international artists including Beuys, Arthur Köpcke, and Valie Export, cemented his status as a catalyst of the Contemporary Arts Berlin movement. The hotel’s bohemian pulse mirrored the famous Chelsea Hotel, becoming a home to radical art discourse and living performativity.

Steiner’s pivotal innovation, however, lay in the founding of his Studiogalerie in 1974, where Berlin first gained its authentic site for video, installation, and performance. Inspired by the progressive Studio Art/Tapes/22 in Florence, Steiner supplied artists such as Marina Abramovi?, Ulay, Valie Export, and Carolee Schneemann with state-of-the-art equipment, fostering Berlin’s first genuine video art scene. Performances filmed by Steiner—like Abramovi?’s historic "Freeing the Body"—combined immediacy with intellectual depth, making ephemeral acts tangible and archivable. In this, Steiner’s approach paralleled that of Nam June Paik, though his focus remained on the cross-pollination of performance, video, and the physical presence of the artist.

This dynamic interplay is best embodied in works like the legendary 1976 action "Irritation – Da ist eine kriminelle Berührung in der Kunst" with Ulay: a spectacular performative theft of Carl Spitzweg’s "Der arme Poet" from the Neue Nationalgalerie. Steiner, as producer and documentarian, captured not merely a rebellious art action, but raised enduring questions about institutional critique, ownership, and the public role of art. As the Studiogalerie’s reputation grew, so did Steiner’s influence in the international network of performing artists—counting among his guests Dorothy Iannone, Ben Vautier, and representatives of the Wiener Aktionismus.

But to frame Mike Steiner solely as a facilitator of others would be misleading. His artistic oeuvre remained driven by an unceasing search for expression between abstraction, structure, and movement. The late 1970s and 80s saw the emergence of "Painted Tapes": a compelling fusion of color painting with VHS tapes, video stills, and photographic series. These "Painted Tapes" demonstrate a remarkable technical curiosity, echoing the contemporary experiments of Gary Hill and Bill Viola, yet maintaining a distinctly Berlin sensibility—raw, sometimes abrasive, yet always emotionally charged. In parallel, Steiner’s foray into minimal art, hard edge, and large-format installations foreshadowed trends seen in artists like Richard Serra or Jochen Gerz, uniting the materiality of paint with the ephemeral quality of video light and screen reflections.

The Hamburg Bahnhof’s major solo exhibition in 1999, "Color Works 1995–98," stands as a testament to both his painterly mastery and his role as a custodian of visual memory. Here, abstract paintings pulsate in saturated hues, yet hold echoes of moving image sequences—a subtle reminder of Steiner’s lifelong passion for the interface between analog and digital, object and event.

Steiner’s biography reads like a map of postwar German art. Born in 1941 in Allenstein and raised in Berlin, his intellectual formation spanned Germany and New York—absorbing lessons from Pop Art, the early days of Fluxus, and the New York School. His environment was shaped by contacts with artistic giants, but also by the everyday hustle of the Kreuzberg bohemia and Berlin’s artist self-help networks. His collecting activities, starting with an acquisition in 1974, resulted in the most significant private video art collection of the Federal Republic; in 1999, this passed into the hands of the Hamburger Bahnhof—thus preserving the fragile media testimonies of performance, Fluxus, and video art for future generations.

Equally remarkable is Steiner’s exquisitely undogmatic philosophy: his unwavering willingness to experiment, his openness toward hybrid formats, and his pronounced sense for collective creation made him both a lighthouse figure and an unassuming enabler. The TV format "Die Videogalerie," launched in 1985, brought video art to a broad audience; his curatorship at ART Basel and the Venice Biennale confirmed his international standing among artists and museums. The archive and works of Mike Steiner today offer researchers and enthusiasts a unique glimpse into the spirit of 1970s and 80s contemporary art—a chronicle as much as an aesthetic experience.

Fascinating, too, is the late turn to abstract painting and textile works—a departure, yet also a return. From the early "Stillleben mit Krug" in 1958 to his last colorful canvases, the drive to renew, to blend surface and memory, never ceased to shape his explorations. While other contemporaries staunchly followed one medium, Steiner’s oeuvre testifies to the courage to transcend boundaries—much in the intellectual company of artists like Bill Viola, Marina Abramovi?, and Valie Export, yet always distinctly his own.

In the end, Mike Steiner’s impact on contemporary art—be it as a painter, collector, or video pioneer—remains a phenomenon that challenges the viewer to reflect anew on the nature of media, authorship, and artistic legacy. Few figures have been so instrumental in shaping Berlin’s rise as a global art metropolis through such a versatile body of work.

For deeper insights, visual impressions, or if you wish to immerse yourself further in the many layers of Mike Steiner’s work and archive, a visit to the official Mike Steiner website is warmly recommended. There, art lovers and experts will find a treasure trove of images, exhibition lists, and contextual essays on these unique contemporary contributions.