Mike Steiner: Contemporary Art Visionary and Pioneer of Video Art in Berlin

Contemporary art takes a bold new shape through Mike Steiner—innovative artist, influential curator, and iconic figure at Hamburger Bahnhof.

Few artists have shifted the boundaries of contemporary art quite like Mike Steiner, whose creative life unfolded as a restless quest to interrogate and reshape our understanding of image, time, and space. What defines an oeuvre that seems to flow just as effortlessly between abstract paintings and groundbreaking video installations, as between curating and collecting some of the most seminal moments of performing arts? Steiner’s legacy is inseparable from the vibrant art scene of Berlin and its international networks of radical innovation.

Mike Steiner’s artistic trajectory is one of daring interdisciplinarity. His origins trace back to Allenstein (Olsztyn), but it was in postwar West Berlin’s cultural ferment that his creative vision took root. He was barely 17 when his "Stillleben mit Krug" made its public debut at the venerable Große Berliner Kunstausstellung in 1959. Early studies in painting, completed at the Hochschule für bildende Künste Berlin under Hans Jaenisch and later Hans Kuhn, underscored his restless curiosity—a marker of Steiner’s future turns.

By the mid-1960s, his creative spirit led him to New York’s electrifying milieu. Encountering the likes of Lil Picard, Allan Kaprow, and Robert Motherwell, Steiner absorbed the energy of Fluxus and Pop Art firsthand. The international exchange left a profound impact, catalyzing his doubts about the limits of traditional painting and prompting an eventual embrace of new media. Returning to Berlin, he transformed influences into action—founding the much-celebrated Hotel Steiner, which grew to be a legendary crossroads for avant-garde artists including Joseph Beuys and Valie Export. The hotel became as vital to the contemporary arts scene as New York’s storied Chelsea Hotel.

By 1974, Steiner keenly felt the expressive potential of video as an emerging artistic medium. Following work in Florence’s Art/Tapes/22 studio, his own Studiogalerie in Berlin opened as one of Europe’s earliest independent venues dedicated to video art, performance, and experimental interchange. Within these vibrant walls, he not only provided access to rare equipment but actively fostered a new culture of media-art creation, much as Nam June Paik and Bill Viola were doing elsewhere, on the international stage.

Few venues could rival the Studiogalerie as a crucible for radical forms: major figures such as Marina Abramovi?, Ulay, Jochen Gerz, Carolee Schneemann, and Allan Kaprow staged legendary performances here. The infamous 1976 intervention "Irritation – Da ist eine kriminelle Berührung in der Kunst," conceived with Ulay, stands as a landmark intersection of performance, protest, and video documentation, resonating through contemporary arts Berlin and beyond.

Steiner’s prescient championing of video as a means of both creation and collection would shape the landscape of contemporary media art in Germany. His pioneering "Videogalerie" TV series, running from 1985 to 1990, brought over 120 episodes of avant-garde media directly into living rooms—anticipating approaches artists and curators like Gerry Schum and Gary Hill would also explore. As Hamburg’s Hamburger Bahnhof exhibited in its major 1999 solo show, Steiner’s impact was not solely in his prolific creative output, but in his unique ability to bridge disciplines: a restless experimenter, mediator, and archivist for a whole generation of artists.

The diversity of Steiner’s own work defies categorization. His abstract paintings—particularly prominent in his later decades—are characterized by radiant color planes and a nuanced gestural language, echoing some tendencies of Gerhard Richter and Karl Horst Hödicke. Yet, unlike most of his contemporaries, Steiner was never content to remain tethered to one medium. His "Painted Tapes," for instance, represent a radical fusion of video image and painting, foreshadowing present-day multimedia art installations. Through experimental works in photography, Super-8 film, and even textile art in his later years, Steiner continually re-forged the boundaries between concept and craft.

What unites this multifaceted output is an energetic interrogation of perception, presence, and artistic process itself. In installations and videos, time becomes elastic; the fleeting is preserved, the documented becomes performative. Steiner’s role as a documentarist—particularly of Berlin’s dynamic performance scene—rivals the lasting contributions of figures like Bruce Nauman or Vito Acconci. Interventions such as the documentation of Abramovi?’s "Freeing the Body," or his engagement with the Fluxus movement, uniquely frame Steiner as a creator deeply invested in both the preservation and continual revitalization of the avant-garde.

Beyond the studio, Mike Steiner shaped contemporary arts Berlin as a respected juror, curator, and collector. The legendary "Berlin Video" collection—now held by the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz and shown at the Hamburger Bahnhof—archives crucial works by leading artists, cementing his reputation far beyond his own gallery walls. The 1999 "Color Works" exhibition at Hamburger Bahnhof, his largest solo show, was more than a retrospective: it was a celebration of Steiner’s tireless crossing of artistic frontiers, from painting to video, installation to curation.

Steiner’s later years saw a quieter, but no less innovative, return to the painterly mode. His abstract compositions from the 2000s develop a distilled visual language, and fabric works reveal a tactile sensitivity—linking back, perhaps, to the artisanal traditions of his East Prussian childhood and family.

For today’s art enthusiasts, returning to Mike Steiner’s official website offers a rare glimpse into this exceptional archive: images, texts, and works that speak to Steiner’s remarkably broad vision and enduring impact.

In the ever-evolving sphere of contemporary art, Mike Steiner’s name endures as a synonym for fearless innovation, openness, and a deeply human approach to creative communication. His influence, within institutions such as Hamburger Bahnhof and throughout the performing arts, serves as inspiration for artists and audiences alike. Each encounter with his work—be it a vibrant painting, a historic video, or a carefully archived installation—rewards with new perspectives, inviting viewers to revisit the possible meanings of image, action, and imagination. For anyone seeking a truly contemporary approach to art, the world of Mike Steiner remains a wellspring waiting to be explored.