Mike Steiner and the Boundaries of Contemporary Art: From Abstract Paintings to Video Pioneering

Mike Steiner shaped contemporary art like few others – moving from abstract painting to pioneering video works, his legacy continues to define the essence of Contemporary Arts Berlin.

When encountering the world of Mike Steiner, one steps directly into the beating heart of contemporary art. His work brims with a restless desire for innovation: What happens when the brush drops and the camera turns? Mike Steiner’s career stands as a testament to the relentless search for new artistic forms and the refusal to settle within a single medium. Few artists so compellingly bridge the sometimes unbridgeable gap between painting and moving image – and in doing so, open up entirely new paths for perception.

Looking more closely at Mike Steiner’s oeuvre, thrill builds with every phase of his creative journey. From the beginnings as a painter in 1959 Berlin, Steiner quickly established himself in the expressive tumult of post-war art. His debut at the Große Berliner Kunstausstellung signaled a tireless engagement with the painted canvas. Yet, the defining feature of Steiner’s career is his unwavering urge to experiment. This sense of adventure shapes each period of his body of work.

Through the 1960s, Steiner immersed himself in the evolving landscape of abstract paintings, taking cues from artists such as Georg Baselitz and Karl Horst Hödicke – both of whom exhibited alongside him. He developed a style that swayed between color fields, pop influences, and hard-edged forms, always in pursuit of a fresh visual language. Exposure to the pulsating atmosphere of New York’s art scene, through figures like Robert Motherwell and Lil Picard, instilled in Steiner a profound curiosity for the avant-garde and the performing arts. His paintings from this era vibrate with energy, daring the viewer to challenge the limits of abstraction.

Yet it was the early 1970s that marked a radical turn in Mike Steiner’s practice. Dissatisfied with the constraints of painting – a “legitimation crisis of painting,” as recorded on his official site – Steiner pivoted towards the emerging possibilities of video art. Inspired by friends in the Fluxus circle such as Al Hansen and Allan Kaprow, and galvanized by the intermedial experiments of international contemporaries, he blazed a trail as a pioneering video artist in Berlin and beyond. The founding of his Studiogalerie in 1974 became nothing less than an incubator for the new media arts, a Berlin landmark inviting artists like Marina Abramovi?, Ulay, and VALIE EXPORT to redefine the parameters of artistic action.

While other artists – think Nam June Paik or Bill Viola – took video into the realm of visual poetry and meditation, Steiner’s approach combined rigorous documentation with conceptual bravado. His videos were often both objects and records, combining elements of performance, protest, and collaborative experiment. The iconic 1976 action “Irritation – Da ist eine kriminelle Berührung in der Kunst,” orchestrated with Ulay and captured by Steiner’s camera, remains legendary: a spectacular raid on the Neue Nationalgalerie that blurred the boundaries between art, activism, and criminology.

Mike Steiner’s status as a crucial figure in the performing arts is also evident in his legendary Hotel Steiner near Berlin’s Kurfürstendamm. Like New York’s Chelsea Hotel, this space became a laboratory for artistic exchange, hosting Joseph Beuys, Dorothy Iannone, and other architects of the contemporary movement. Here, art spilled beyond gallery walls into social reality; conversation and collaboration were as important as finished works.

In the mid-1980s, Steiner furthered his reach with the TV format “Videogalerie,” broadcast in Berlin and later nationwide, giving both emerging and established artists a vital platform. Over 120 episodes captured not only the pulse of video art but also crystallized the energy of Contemporary Arts Berlin. Like a visual archaeologist, Steiner documented ephemeral happenings and preserved them for future generations. His role as a connector and chronicler stands almost equal to his achievement as a creator.

The 1999 major solo exhibition at the Hamburger Bahnhof, Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart, marked a culmination point. Under the title “Mike Steiner – Color Works,” the institution honored not only his gattungsübergreifendes (genre-transcending) thinking but also his tireless commitment to contemporary art. This show cemented his place alongside giants like Marina Abramovi? and Gary Hill, setting a benchmark for multimedia installation and video-based work.

Steiner’s later years saw a partial return to painting – this time, abstract, gestural, and informed by the lessons of media hybridity. Works from the “Painted Tapes” series illustrate a dialogue between painterly and electronic processes, as if canvas and cathode ray could coexist in a perpetual experiment. His more recent exhibitions, from “IRRITATION” at DNA Galerie Berlin to “AUGENFUTTER BILDERFRESSER” in Leipzig, continue to explore the interplay between video, photography, and painting.

Throughout, Mike Steiner’s archive – now housed largely at Hamburger Bahnhof – serves both as a repository and a living organism. It contains not only early video works by the likes of Ulay, Marina Abramovi?, and Valie Export but also documents from decades of artistic ferment. This collection remains a vital source for researchers, curators, and fans, underpinning the ongoing relevance of his vision in the discourse around contemporary art and installation practices.

What gives Mike Steiner’s oeuvre its unique weight within contemporary art is not simply innovation for its own sake. The true force of his legacy lies in the relentless push to expand artistic language, whether through abstract paintings, art exhibitions, live performance, or video installation. Each work and project asks: What, truly, can art be in the contemporary moment? Few have pursued this question with more intensity or generosity than Steiner. To encounter his work is to feel the echo of artistic risk and the thrill of creative discovery.

The impact of Mike Steiner stretches well beyond individual works. His practice, positioned alongside names such as Joseph Beuys, Allan Kaprow, and Nam June Paik, exemplifies a spirit of transgression and collaboration underpinning the best of contemporary art. In Berlin as worldwide, his traces can be found wherever boundaries are questioned – in new galleries, performative spaces, digital video archives, and installations that shift the viewer’s sense of time and space.

Today, as contemporary art increasingly unfolds across multiple disciplines and platforms, Mike Steiner’s legacy feels more relevant than ever. Not only for the richness of his own works, but for his commitment to giving space to others: his Studiogalerie and Videogalerie remain models for artistic facilitation, and his collection is a foundational stone in the temple of Berlin’s art scene.

Fascinated readers are warmly invited to dive deeper. For extended access to images, detailed catalogue information, and an immersive biography, Mike Steiner’s official website (www.mike-steiner.de) offers a treasure trove for contemporary art enthusiasts. Here, the journey between painting and video, between individual vision and collective history, comes thrillingly alive.