Mike Steiner: Redefining Contemporary Art – Pioneering Video, Painting, and Performing Arts
05.01.2026 - 08:28:01
Mike Steiner stands at the vibrant intersection of contemporary art, forever woven into the fabric of Berlin’s creative energy. If one seeks to trace the evolution and pulse of Contemporary Arts Berlin, Steiner’s name is inevitable—a name synonymous with fluid artistic boundaries and relentless experimentation. How does a single artist redefine the conventions of painting, video, and performance? For Steiner, the answer lay in never resting, never settling, and always remaining the curious outsider at the center of things.
Explore contemporary artworks by Mike Steiner here
At the forefront of his creative journey, what initially stands out is Steiner's profound shift from abstract paintings towards pioneering video art. In his early years, exhibitions at the Große Berliner Kunstausstellung drew attention to his expressive, informally rendered canvases. Yet Steiner’s restless nature soon guided him to larger questions about the limits of art. By the early 1970s, influenced by encounters with Allan Kaprow and the Fluxus movement in New York, Steiner turned decisively to multimedia experiments. This shift proved pivotal—not only for him, but for the wider scene of contemporary art in Berlin.
His most prominent legacy perhaps resides in the legendary Hotel Steiner, an artist’s refuge in West Berlin reminiscent of the famed Chelsea Hotel. Artists including Joseph Beuys and Marina Abramovi? found a welcoming atmosphere and a stage for their interventions. Steiner’s creation of the Studiogalerie then became a catalyst: a hub where video, performance art, and boundary-breaking collaborations flourished. This was not simply a gallery—it was an engine room for experiment, conversation, and artistic dissent.
Crucial to Steiner’s oeuvre is the interplay of media. From his early works in malerei (painting) to evocative pieces in video art, and back to vivid abstract paintings late in life, every phase testifies to a unique synthesis. The celebrated “Painted Tapes” stand as an emblem. Here, Steiner blended video recordings—born from the immediacy of performance—with painterly gestures, fusing the ephemeral with the tactile. It echoes the multidimensionality seen in the works of contemporaries such as Nam June Paik or Bill Viola, yet Steiner’s approach bore a distinctly Berlin edge: raw, spontaneous, and always experimental.
Reference points abound for comparison: While Nam June Paik merged television and sculpture, and Joseph Beuys used social sculpture as a tool for communication, Mike Steiner's practice weaved these legacies directly into the city’s art sociology. His link to Performing Arts is seen most vividly through actions like the “Irritation – Da ist eine kriminelle Berührung in der Kunst” (1976) with Ulay, where art physically intervened into museum space and public consciousness. Such projects were not isolated moments; they were the natural results of Steiner's vision—a vision always pushing the viewer beyond comfort, into new modes of perception.
The apex of public recognition came with major exhibitions, particularly the landmark 1999 solo show at Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart. There, Steiner’s Color Works were celebrated in dialogue with giants of contemporary art, situating him within the same breath as Georg Baselitz and Karl Horst Hödicke. Decades earlier, his productions and curatorial interventions had already secured pivotal roles in platforms such as the ART Basel and Berlin’s DAAD programs. Yet, what makes Steiner enduringly fascinating is not the number of exhibitions, but the constant evolution seen within each body of work—from early abstract malerei through the radical documentation and archiving of performance art.
Steiner’s method was deeply shaped by Berlin’s unique post-war cultural dynamic and by years spent navigating the New York art world. Early mentorships—with Hans Kuhn at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste or in the atelier of Robert Motherwell—formed the foundations. Encounters with Pop Art’s critical language, Happenings, and later, the extraordinary energy of the Berlin underground, made him not only a chronicler but an architect of artistic communities. It’s telling that decades after founding his own hotel and gallery, Steiner remained a collector—amassing an invaluable video art archive now conserved at Hamburger Bahnhof.
The importance of this archive cannot be overestimated. Containing rare footage and original works by key figures from Marina Abramovi? to Valie Export, Gary Hill to Allan Kaprow, the collection maps the genealogy of video and performance art as lived practice. Collectors, curators, and artists alike will find in it both a resource and a touchstone: here, contemporary art is not simply preserved, but kept alive—awaiting new viewers, new interpretations.
In the last phase of his career, after a stroke in 2006, Mike Steiner withdrew somewhat from public life but remained productive in the studio. His focus shifted back to painting and fabric compositions—proof again of the versatility and restlessness intrinsic to his vision. Even as time and the art world itself evolved, Steiner’s stance never softened: always experimental, always open, and always a champion for those artistic strategies which challenge, irritate, and inspire.
So why revisit Mike Steiner today? His work provides not just a mirror to the story of Contemporary Arts Berlin but stands as a manifesto for crossing genres and upturning aesthetic conventions. For both seasoned art devotees and newcomers, a deep dive into his career offers a comprehensive exploration of late-20th-century transformation: from the painter’s canvas to the cathode-ray tube, from private atelier to the bright lights of the Hamburger Bahnhof. Few artists embody the scope and uncertainty of contemporary art’s evolution as thoroughly as Mike Steiner.
For an immersive look at Mike Steiner’s abstract paintings, art installations, and rare video pieces—from action-packed performances to meditative color studies—visiting his official website is more than worthwhile. It is an invitation to journey through five decades of creative risk, artistic connection, and the unapologetic questioning of norms. Steiner’s archive not only preserves the past but sparks the critical dialogue that contemporary art so desperately needs today.
To discover detailed biographies, exhibition history, and a selection of key artworks, visit the official website of Mike Steiner and open yourself to the bold legacy of an artist whose influence extends far beyond Berlin’s city limits.
