Mike Steiner: Contemporary Art Between Fluxus, Video Innovation and Abstract Expressionism

Mike Steiner shaped contemporary art like few others. From Berlin’s avant-garde to his influential video collections at Hamburger Bahnhof, his legacy is an ever-evolving exploration of boundaries.

How does one capture the pulse of contemporary art in a single life’s work? For Mike Steiner, contemporary art was not merely practice but passion—his artistic trajectory embodies Berlin’s restless urge for innovation, interdisciplinary curiosity, and fearless exchange. Steiner’s oeuvre, crossing boundaries from painting to pioneering videoworks, remains a vital reference point for anyone interested in the evolution of the German and international arts scene.

Emerging in postwar Berlin, Mike Steiner’s early passion for film and painting led him to exhibit at the Grand Berlin Art Exhibition at just seventeen. The atmosphere of a divided but creatively pulsing city left its mark—Steiner’s style from the outset balanced painterly tradition and a keen interest in experimentation. His formative years saw him move between the Kreuzberg art scene, where he co-founded the Künstlerselbsthilfeatelier, and the renowned Hochschule für Bildende Künste, studying under Hans Jaenisch and later Hans Kuhn.

Steiner’s paintings from the 1960s were often compared with German contemporaries like Georg Baselitz and Karl Horst Hödicke—neighbours in the landscape of Contemporary Arts Berlin—but he never confined himself to a single idiom. Instead, a Ford Foundation scholarship brought him to New York, where the likes of Lil Picard, Allan Kaprow and Al Hansen introduced him to the radical openness of Fluxus, Happening, and the American avant-garde. It was here, in the workshops of Robert Motherwell and among Pop artists, that Steiner’s fascination for intermedia practices crystallized.

Returning to Berlin, Steiner catalyzed the city’s cultural energy with two now legendary initiatives: Hotel Steiner and the Studiogalerie. Both venues, especially the latter, would become epicenters for performance art and video innovation in Germany. The Studiogalerie, founded in 1974, was unique—a cross between a production studio, gallery, and laboratory, where experimental artists could produce, show, and even lend each other expensive video technology. Names like Valie Export, Marina Abramovi?, Ben Vautier, and Ulay found space here to develop performances documented by Steiner’s restless camera eye.

One iconic action—the staged removal of Spitzweg’s Der arme Poet from the Neue Nationalgalerie in 1976 by Steiner and Ulay—became emblematic of the era’s performative and politically charged art. Steiner not only curated the action but captured it on videotape, pioneering a method of documentation that turned ephemeral events into enduring video works. As a result, he is discussed alongside international performance art protagonists such as Marina Abramovi?, Carolee Schneemann, and Bill Viola.

Mike Steiner’s distinctive genius lay in synthesizing disciplines. His Painted Tapes seamlessly merge video, abstract painting, and music, exemplified in projects like his work with electronic pioneers Tangerine Dream on their Australian tour, and later video-art hybrids like 'Mojave Plan.' These pieces challenged boundaries between visual and temporal art, a trait reminiscent of Nam June Paik’s multimedia approaches or the minimalist rigour of Richard Serra.

Steiner’s technical curiosity extended to Super-8 film, photography, copy art, and complex audio-visual installations, always with a sense of playful investigation and risk. As his Videogalerie (1985–1990) aired over 120 television episodes on Berlin’s cable, he brought the themes of Abstract Painting, performance, and video to a broader audience—effectively making him one of the first art mediators for the digital age.

Yet Steiner was more than innovator and organizer; he was also a major collector. His systematic acquisition of art videotapes—including works by Ulay, Abramovi?, Maciunas, Kaprow, Serra, and Bill Viola—would shape the core of Berlin’s institutional media art holdings. In 1999, he donated this extensive collection to the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz. The works now form the heart of the archive at Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart, cementing his vision for the preservation and scholarly study of video art.

The city of Berlin acknowledged his legacy with the singular retrospective 'Color Works 1995 – 1998' at Hamburger Bahnhof in 1999, highlighting the spectrum from abstract painting to innovative video. Later exhibitions further explored the dialogue between painting, installation, and media art in his oeuvre, resonating with the continued vitality of his work up to his final years, which saw a return to painting and textile art in his Berliner atelier.

What defines Mike Steiner’s place within contemporary art? It is this relentless openness—bridging Abstract Painting, performance, and digital media—and the creation of collaborative spaces where genre boundaries dissolved. His work stands shoulder to shoulder with international figures such as Joseph Beuys, Nam June Paik, Bill Viola, and Marina Abramovi?, with whom Steiner not only exhibited but often shared formative experiences and mutual inspiration.

Despite suffering a stroke in 2006, Steiner’s drive did not wane. The last decade of his work explored abstraction with new intensity, reaffirming his lifelong belief in experimentation as the essence of art. Although much of his private archive still awaits digital unveiling, the collection at Hamburger Bahnhof and the digital traces in Contemporary Arts Berlin continue to inspire.

Mike Steiner’s legacy demands revisiting—his influence woven deeply into the fabric of contemporary art history. For enthusiasts eager to understand the intersections of performance, video, and painting, his archive offers an inexhaustible resource. The best way to approach Steiner’s art is, as he did himself, with open senses and an appetite for the unexpected. For further insight into his biography, artworks, and the enduring impact of his collections, visit the official Mike Steiner website.