Mike Steiner and Contemporary Art: From Berlin Avant-Garde to Video Art Pioneer

Mike Steiner shaped contemporary art in Berlin with visionary energy – from abstract paintings and Fluxus to his legendary video archives and groundbreaking exhibitions.

Few artists embody the restless spirit of contemporary art quite like Mike Steiner. His name is inseparable from the vibrant creative currents that flowed – and still flow – through Berlin. But what defines the unique aura of a Mike Steiner work? And where, amidst all the currents of painting, performance, and emerging media, do his lasting contributions to the field of contemporary art lie?

At the heart of Mike Steiner's oeuvre stands a radical willingness to blur boundaries between genres, materials, and disciplines. His career, grounded in the energy of Berlin's 1960s and 70s art scene, unfolds as an exploration of the contemporary arts of his time: from his early abstract paintings to performances and the feminist avant-garde, and then to a passionate embrace of video as both tool and subject. Steiner was not just an observer but an instigator, teacher, documentarian, and above all a restless experimenter.

Every era has its catalysts: in postwar Germany, Mike Steiner became a driving force, conjuring new artistic spaces – real and metaphorical – and seeding them with dialogue. Like Joseph Beuys, Marina Abramovi?, or Nam June Paik, whose practices redefined the possible, Steiner believed art must challenge, provoke, and connect. Yet, unlike some contemporaries, Mike Steiner's gift lay in his ability to create frameworks in which others could flourish: Hotel Steiner, his vibrant, bustling haven for local and international artists in West Berlin, was likened to New York's Chelsea Hotel, serving as much as an incubator for avant-garde practice as a refuge for wayfarers and visionaries.

This commitment to providing space (literally and figuratively) finds its deepest manifestation in his Studiogalerie, established in 1974, which rapidly became one of Berlin’s most significant locations for Fluxus, performance, contemporary installation, and the early waves of videokunst. Steiner fostered not only his own practice but those of countless associates: luminaries like Valie Export, Carolee Schneemann, Ulay, Jochen Gerz, and Allan Kaprow all benefitted from his willingness to put up resources, share equipment, and champion new forms. The Studiogalerie hosted everything from legendary performances (including the provocative 1976 'Irritation' with Ulay, a statement on institutional power and the fragility of art objects) to hands-on access for creative experimentation with emerging video technologies.

While compared with global changemakers like Nam June Paik – widely credited as a father of video art – Steiner’s distinct trajectory is twofold: He pursued his own projects in painting, installation, and video art, while also amassing what would become one of the most important collections of contemporary video art in Germany. This dual role, artist and collector, allowed him to chronicle an era’s creative pulse in a way few individuals ever do.

Technically, Mike Steiner’s works are marked by a highly intermedial approach. Early abstract paintings show a sensitivity to surface, rhythm, and chromatic resonance reminiscent of post-war painterly abstraction, not unlike Gerhard Richter’s more lyrical episodes or the harder edges seen in Karl Horst Hödicke. But it is in video where Steiner pushes boundaries: his 'painted tapes' – fusions of video signal manipulation and the gesture of painting – create mesmerizing hybrid works, oscillating between image and movement, presence and trace. The effect is at once immediate and meditative, conceptually rigorous yet accessible.

The breadth of his engagement with performance is impossible to overstate. Documenting actions by artists such as Marina Abramovi? ('Freeing the Body,' 1976) or Valie Export's feminist interventions, Steiner did not just passively record but actively shaped the dialogue around contemporary performance and ephemeral art forms. Like Allan Kaprow or Yoko Ono, he grasped the fleeting quality of action and the enduring power of its documentation.

Nowhere is Mike Steiner’s stature more visible than in his 1999 retrospective at the Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart. This extensive solo exhibition – a touchstone for the field – encapsulated decades of boundary-breaking creative labor, from color-saturated paintings and kinetic installations to rare video documents of the Berlin avant-garde. Today, Steiner’s remarkable video archive remains in the Hamburger Bahnhof’s collection, a testament to his pioneering vision and a resource still far from fully digitized or explored.

His biography reads like a living chronicle of contemporary arts in Berlin and beyond: Born in Allenstein in 1941, raised amid the turmoil of war and displacement, then a formative presence in both German and American art worlds. Early encounters with New York's Fluxus scene and figures like Lil Picard and Allan Kaprow fundamentally shaped his understanding of the permeability of art's borders. Returning to Berlin, Steiner positioned himself at the crossroads of international movements and local experimentation, holding teaching posts, curating video programs for major festivals (Basel Art Fair, Rome, Venice Biennale), and later, producing over 120 episodes of 'Videogalerie' for television – a visionary cross between broadcasting and exhibition that prefigured much contemporary art mediation.

The collection Mike Steiner assembled includes works by Richard Serra, Bill Viola, George Maciunas, and Gary Hill. Through this web of connections, Steiner bridged Berlin and the world, establishing Contemporary Arts Berlin as a hub for what was – and remains – truly cutting-edge. Like contemporaries Wolfgang Tillmans or Rosemarie Trockel, his reach extended far beyond his studio walls.

Even after a serious stroke in 2006, Steiner produced abstract paintings of vibrant energy and, late in life, fabric works distinguished by their tactile physicality. Right up to his final years, he maintained a studio practice that pulsed with curiosity and openness to the evolving field of the arts. His radical openness to new media and his enduring search for the right material, gesture, or format are, perhaps, his greatest legacies.

Fascinating about Mike Steiner’s artistic legacy is how consistently it points ahead: through experimentation, collaboration, and fearlessness in the face of the unknown. His archive – much still waiting for digital revelation – remains a treasure trove for artists, historians, and anyone interested in how contemporary art’s boundaries are set and reset.

For those who wish to delve deeper into the kaleidoscopic universe of Mike Steiner, both his official artist page and the vast holdings at Hamburger Bahnhof offer unrivaled resources. His work, in painting, performance, and video art, remains as fresh and urgent as when it first broke onto the Berlin scene decades ago. Visit the official Mike Steiner homepage for biographical insight, digital exhibitions, and an evolving look at an artist who never ceased to question what contemporary art could become.