Mike Steiner: The Visionary of Contemporary Art and Pioneer of Video at Hamburger Bahnhof

With tireless innovation, Mike Steiner redefined contemporary art. His pioneering work in painting, video, and performance unfolds a dynamic legacy, celebrated at venues like Hamburger Bahnhof.

What does it mean to frame the boundary between image and event, painting and performance? In the vibrant currents of contemporary art, Mike Steiner stands out as a singular force—interweaving classic abstraction with cutting-edge video, orchestrating moments where art and life collide. From the outset, Steiner’s work compels us to question: where does the artwork end, and where does our own perception begin?

Mike Steiner’s artistic universe unfolds in Berlin—a city synonymous with creative innovation—as documented on the official site, Mike Steiner Artist Page. There, his development from a gifted teenager showing at the legendary Grosse Berliner Kunstausstellung (1959), to a pioneer of multimedia practice, becomes palpable. Early on, his abstract paintings revealed a distinct hand: juxtapositions of color, an alertness for nuance, and echoes of the Informal and Pop Art movements. Even as the European art scene splintered into new territories during the 1960s, Steiner held a unique position—his own synthesis of tradition and experimentation.

The 1970s, a time of radical transformation in Contemporary Arts Berlin, saw Steiner evolve. After formative sojourns in the US—studying, creating, and absorbing the restless energy of New York—he returned to Berlin enriched by personal encounters with trailblazers like Allan Kaprow, Robert Motherwell, and Lil Picard. Steiner’s own Hotel Steiner became a mythic gathering place, reminiscent of the Chelsea Hotel’s role for Andy Warhol and the New York avant-garde. Here, cross-pollination thrived: Fluxus artists, action painters, and musicians forged networks that would reshape the city’s creative landscape.

Steiner’s signature move in the 1970s was his bold embrace of video—long before this medium achieved institutional recognition. Inspired by the dynamism of Florentine studios and collaborations with the likes of Al Hansen, Mike Steiner founded the Studiogalerie in Berlin. This unique venue operated as a production lab for video art, a home for Fluxus happenings and a vital alternative to commercial galleries. Notably, Steiner not only offered his technical equipment to artists, but was an active participant, documenting performances by icons such as Marina Abramovi? (“Freeing the Body”, 1976), Valie Export, Jochen Gerz, and Carolee Schneemann. Few figures so completely blurred the line between artist, curator, and catalyst.

A landmark in Steiner’s legacy came in 1976, when he and Ulay staged “Irritation — there is a criminal touch in art”, the infamous temporary appropriation of the Spitzweg masterpiece “Der arme Poet” from Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie. This radical gesture—simultaneously performance, social critique, and media event—catapulted Steiner’s name to the international stage, affirming his position in a circle of contemporary artists who challenged art’s institutional frameworks, such as Joseph Beuys, Nam June Paik, and Bill Viola. The resulting video work is not only an archival trace but also a provocation, asking: What happens when the artwork steps out of the museum and into life?

At the heart of Steiner’s œuvre is a restless experimentation with media. His work encompasses Super-8 film, photography, copy art, minimal and hard-edge painting, and, especially in the 1980s, sound and music videos (notably for Tangerine Dream). The “Painted Tapes” series stands out—a pioneering fusion where hand-painted film and moving image become one, merging the aura of painting with the immediacy of electronic sound and light. Here, Steiner’s sensibility meets that of contemporaries like John Baldessari or Bruce Nauman—another generation of artists for whom boundaries were merely springboards.

The late 20th century brought international recognition. Steiner curated key video programs for Art Basel and the Venice Biennale, developed the TV-format “Videogalerie” (1985–1990) for German cable television, and continued to build one of Europe’s premier archives of art video. His ability to network was legendary: as a collaborator, documentarian, and producer, he became vital to artists including Ulay, Marina Abramovi?, and Valie Export, fostering a dialogue that shaped European contemporary art. His greatest recognition came with the 1999 retrospective at Hamburger Bahnhof—Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart, where “Color Works” celebrated his syncretic painting and his impact on the new media landscape.

In comparison to his contemporaries—think Joseph Beuys’ social sculpture, Nam June Paik’s electronic vision, or Bruce Nauman’s conceptual rigor—Mike Steiner’s versatility, and his deep commitment to artists’ communities, marks his unique place in history. While others gravitated toward grand gestures or minimalist reduction, Steiner orchestrated spaces for collective experience and experimentation. His approach may best be described as avant-garde hospitality—curating situations where art unfolded in real time, embracing accident, dialogue, and flux.

Returning to painting in the 2000s, Steiner turned to abstraction with renewed vigor—producing bold color fields and textured surfaces evocative of Gerhard Richter, yet distinct in their touch. Even as ill health limited his public presence after 2006, he remained prolific in his Berlin studio, exploring the possibilities of textile and mixed media. Ever the innovator, his archive—now housed at Hamburger Bahnhof—remains a treasure trove for scholars and enthusiasts eager to reconstruct the story of video, performance, and contemporary art in Berlin.

Mike Steiner’s artistic philosophy—restless, generous, and skeptical of boundaries—remains deeply relevant. In an age seeking both authenticity and connectivity, his work reminds us of art’s power not only as object, but as event, as memory, as shared experiment. For art lovers, this is more than a historical footnote: it is an invitation to rediscover a legacy of creative courage.

For those hungry for more, the artist’s official webpage offers an in-depth look at major exhibitions, video clips, and critical writings—essential resources for anyone drawn to the pulse of contemporary arts in Berlin. Mike Steiner’s influence continues to reverberate whenever artists, curators, and audiences seek to reinvent the possibilities of artistic media and experience.