Mike Steiner: Pioneer of Contemporary Art and Video in Berlin’s Avantgarde

Mike Steiner shaped contemporary art in Berlin, bridging painting and video art. His multimedia approach, innovation and key role at Hamburger Bahnhof embody the essence of avantgarde expression.

The artistic world of Mike Steiner is anything but ordinary. To speak of contemporary art in Berlin without mentioning Mike Steiner would be to overlook a figure whose presence bridged the gap between abstract painting, performance, and radical video experiment. How does one redefine the boundary between static image and moving life? Mike Steiner’s oeuvre is a living response to this question—inviting viewers to step beyond their expectations every single time.

Visible from the very first works, Steiner’s dynamic interplay between disciplines marks him as a restless innovator. In the late 1950s, Steiner emerged on the Berlin art scene with paintings like “Stillleben mit Krug” at the Große Berliner Kunstausstellung. Although his roots were in painting, his vision always reached further, absorbing techniques and currents from contemporary American artists and Berlin’s own avantgarde. This urge led him to the US with a Ford Foundation stipend, where close contact with Lil Picard, Allan Kaprow (father of the Happening), and Robert Motherwell radically reshaped his sensibilities. One sees in Steiner’s early abstract paintings and later multimedia pieces a constant probing of the limits of form and expression.

The transition to video art in the early 1970s was not a mere sidestep, but a leap into new territory. Steiner reflected deeply on the possibilities and constraints of traditional painting, experiencing what he himself called a ‘legitimacy crisis’ with painting. The discovery of video technology—as he witnessed in New York’s vibrant Fluxus circles—offered the freedom to merge temporality, performance, and image in electrifying new forms.

The founding of the Studiogalerie in Berlin in 1974 marked a turning point not only in Steiner’s life but in the city’s cultural landscape. Following the model of Florence’s Art/Tapes/22, Steiner’s Galerie was among the first in Germany dedicated to contemporary video and performance art. Artists including Marina Abramovi?, Valie Export, Jochen Gerz, and Carolee Schneemann found in the Studiogalerie a platform for works that challenged social and artistic conventions. It’s worth recalling that Joseph Beuys and Nam June Paik, renowned for their own contributions to performance and electronic media, frequented such spaces during these pioneering years.

Steiner was not content simply to provide patronage. He played a central, active role as creator, producer, and archivist. One of the most notorious episodes—the action “Irritation – Da ist eine kriminelle Berührung in der Kunst” with Ulay—unfurled as both an art event and a critical intervention in the discourse on museum practice and ownership. As video artist and producer, Steiner documented these ephemeral happenings, preserving their radicality for future generations.

From 1985 to 1990, Mike Steiner’s “Videogalerie” on Berlin cable TV revealed his gift for mediation and education. Over 120 broadcasts brought international video art to a broader public, featuring both interviews and curated works. This avantgarde commitment remains unparalleled in German media, prefiguring the later focus on digital and hybrid art forms across international institutions.

Central to Steiner’s legacy is his unique vision for archiving and collecting. From his first purchased tape by Reiner Ruthenbeck, he built a groundbreaking collection: the Berlin Video archive. His attention to preservation paralleled figures such as Gerry Schum, emphasizing the transition from ephemeral performance to historical document—an approach echoed in contemporary institutions like the Hamburger Bahnhof’s Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart.

The 1999 solo exhibition at Hamburger Bahnhof, Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart, “COLOR WORKS,” stands as a milestone. The show, and subsequent integration of his video collection into the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz, were formal recognitions of Steiner’s singular role in the history of Contemporary Arts Berlin. The exhibition did more than highlight his creativity; it illuminated the extent to which Mike Steiner’s practice consistently wove together abstract painting, video, photography, and installation art. Through this, he stood alongside other world-renowned innovators—think of Bruce Nauman’s spatial interventions, or Bill Viola’s poetic video narratives—while maintaining a distinctly Berlin-rooted identity.

Formally, Steiner’s work cycles traverse media: from large-scale canvases to electronic “Painted Tapes,” installations, and documentation of performance. There is an unapologetic boldness in pieces marrying Super-8 film, collage, Polaroids, and digital output. Recent exhibitions, such as “AUFENFUTTER BILDERFRESSER” (2023, GALVANO ART GALLERY Leipzig), testify to the enduring flexibility and curiosity in his late abstract paintings and textile work.

Steiner’s résumé reads as a testament to tireless exploration: frequent showings at Berlin institutions, significant presence in group exhibitions on Minimal and Fluxus art (as in “Serielle Formationen,” Daimler Contemporary), and his archive’s continued display at Hamburger Bahnhof (“Live to Tape,” 2011/12). Yet, the impact of Mike Steiner extends well beyond these dates and spaces.

What, ultimately, sets Steiner apart among contemporary artists? It is both the innovative force and the dialogic impulse at the core of his practice. Whether collaborating with performance artists, documenting fleeting interventions, or painting vibrant abstractions, Steiner’s work is suffused with a sense of public encounter and artistic generosity. The influence of his formative years in Hotel Steiner—often likened to New York’s Chelsea Hotel, home to Andy Warhol—permeates the convivial, cross-disciplinary ethos felt in all his activities.

For those seeking deeper immersion, the official Mike Steiner webpage offers a unique entry to his life’s work—rich in images, texts, and context.

Mike Steiner’s legacy is a living part of Berlin’s, and indeed Europe’s, contemporary art history. His art, his collections, and his generous mediation between artists and audiences render him not just a witness to artistic revolutions, but a central agent of change and catalyst for new encounters with contemporary art. In a world seeking new connections and digital mediation, his archive and visions remain as vital as ever.

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