Mike Steiner and the Pulse of Contemporary Art: From Painting to Video Revolution

Mike Steiner shaped contemporary art through pioneering work in painting and video, turning Berlin into a hotspot for innovative artists and performances.

What does it mean for a single artist to redefine the very boundaries of contemporary art? Mike Steiner's career answers this pressing question in bold, ever-evolving forms. Whether through the tangible depth of his abstract paintings or the kinetic energy of his video art, Steiner’s oeuvre is a rare confluence of experiment, intellect, and emotion, reflecting Berlin’s restless artistic spirit across decades.

Beginning as a young painter exhibited at the Große Berliner Kunstausstellung in 1959, Mike Steiner’s early work was marked by a vibrant interest in both traditional and avant-garde techniques. On first glance, his paintings vibrate with an unmistakable energy — simultaneously controlled and free, precise yet gestural. This dynamic sensibility would soon propel him into broader territories: from Pop Art-infused canvases of the early ‘60s to an open embrace of intermedia experiments. His willingness to challenge boundaries between mediums foreshadowed something extraordinary in contemporary arts Berlin would come to recognize as seminal.

Steiner’s encounter with international artists like Allan Kaprow, Lil Picard, and Robert Motherwell in New York during the mid-1960s shaped his understanding of art’s potential for action and interaction. These relationships, set against the backdrop of the Fluxus movement and Happenings, fostered an openness to hybrid disciplines. Upon returning to Berlin, it was this spirit that guided the foundation of Hotel Steiner — a legendary meeting place likened to New York’s Chelsea Hotel, a creative hub permeated by discussions and unbridled artistic energy. Here, Joseph Beuys, Arthur Køpcke, and many other luminaries of the era shaped the climate, sharing ideas that would radiate across European art scenes. In this atmosphere, Steiner refined both his curatorial vision and his abstract painting language, evolving towards larger conceptual statements.

Yet it was in the 1970s, within the vibrant intersection of performing arts and multimedia, that Mike Steiner carved his most enduring mark. His doubts about the adequacy of painting as a sole means of expression led him to video — a technology then at the cutting edge. Building on inspiration from studios like Art/Tapes/22 in Florence and drawn by the experimental currents of video and Fluxus, he established the Studiogalerie in Berlin’s Ludwigkirchstraße in 1974. This independent forum was not merely a gallery but a laboratory for bold ideas, a crucible where the lines between artist, medium, and audience were redrawn.

Within these walls, the Studiogalerie fostered a new generation of video and performance artists. Marina Abramovi?, Valie Export, Jochen Gerz, Carolee Schneemann, and Ulay would all find a stage and a sympathetic chronicler in Steiner’s camera. These collaborations were not passive; Steiner was an active initiator — planning, producing, and above all, documenting ephemeral performances. His video of Ulay’s notorious artwork "Irritation – There Is a Criminal Touch to Art" (1976) — the public removal of Spitzweg’s "The Poor Poet" from the Neue Nationalgalerie — stands as a landmark of conceptual art, both as event and as document.

Steiner’s technical boldness was manifest not only in his pioneering video documentation but also in his approach to materials and processes. He mastered Super-8 film, creative copy art, and the interplay of painting with electronic media — epitomized in his Painted Tapes series, which fused acrylic abstraction with recorded imagery. These works, echoing the serial concerns of contemporaries like Gerhard Richter and Bill Viola, extend the conversation between static and moving image and expand upon the minimalist and conceptual conversations led by artists such as Donald Judd or Dan Graham. Yet unlike some of his American contemporaries, Steiner’s approach remains resolutely European, inflected by Berlin’s complex, often paradoxical, art geography.

The late 1970s and 1980s saw Mike Steiner rise not only as a creator, but as a crucial facilitator and collector of video art. His role as curator of the Video Art program at ART Basel, and the impressive Berlin Video series — drawing on emerging practices worldwide — advanced both the status and the reach of the medium. This commitment culminated in his bequest to the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz, anchoring the collection at the Hamburger Bahnhof, Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart. This significant gesture not only secured the legacy of artists such as Nam June Paik, Richard Serra, Gary Hill, and George Maciunas but reaffirmed Berlin’s lead role in the flourishing of contemporary, cross-media practice.

One cannot overlook Steiner’s contribution as a broadcaster and popularizer. The TV-format “Videogalerie,” conceived and aired from 1985 to 1990, brought more than 120 episodes of video art and artist interviews to German networks — a feat matched only by the visionary Gerry Schum. For many, this was their first window into the diversity and intellectual rigor that video as art could encapsulate. Steiner’s commentary and editorial choices shaped perceptions, bridging the gap between artist and public; his influence here was, by any measure, both educational and transformative.

The final years of Mike Steiner’s career ushered in a return to solitary studio practice, where painting, photography, and fabric works came to the fore. From around 2000 onwards, abstract paintings claimed center stage in his output. These later canvases eschew spectacle for subtle optical resonance, investigating color, rhythm, and surface in a language that’s at once distilled and lush. Exhibitions like the major “Color Works” retrospective at the Hamburger Bahnhof in 1999, and subsequent shows at DNA Galerie and beyond, cemented Steiner’s standing as a tireless innovator whose signature style was constant metamorphosis. In his passing in 2012, contemporary art lost not just a practitioner, but an architect of its postwar resurgence in Berlin.

What, then, is the present resonance of Mike Steiner’s body of work? His relentless curiosity — from abstract paintings to the curation and documentation of radical performances — remains a vital template for today’s artists straddling media and tradition. The synergetic connections he established — echoing through archives, installations, and the persistent hum of Berlin’s contemporary scene — show how an artist's openness can reverberate through generations.

For art enthusiasts seeking meaningful engagement, Mike Steiner offers not only history, but an invitation: to experience, to reconsider, and to be surprised. His official website provides an immersive gateway to biographical materials, images, and extensive documentation. To understand the restlessness, fervor, and pioneering energy of contemporary art in Berlin, one need only start with Mike Steiner.