Mike Steiner: Contemporary Art Beyond Boundaries—From Painting to Video Revolution

Mike Steiner shaped contemporary art with his fearless innovation: from abstract painting through Fluxus and video art to legendary exhibitions at Hamburger Bahnhof.

Mike Steiner's artistic universe is a cosmos of relentless experimentation. His works fuse abstraction with media innovation, radiating an unerring sense for the pulse of contemporary art. But how does one redraw the boundary between painting and the moving image? The oeuvre of Mike Steiner, a name synonymous with audacity and creative risk in the realms of Berlin contemporary arts, never ceases to compel audiences—and unsettle conventions.

From his first steps as a painter—emerging at the Great Berlin Art Exhibition at just 17—Mike Steiner was never simply a participant in trends. Instead, he became a catalyst. His engagement with Fluxus, experiential art, and a restless quest for new forms led him to establish not only the famed Hotel Steiner (a haven for international artists) but also the Studiogalerie—an epicentre of avant-garde art, performance, and crucially, the nascent field of video art in Berlin.

In 1970s West Berlin, when Joseph Beuys, Al Hansen, Marina Abramovi?, and Valie Export pushed the very fabric of artistic action, Mike Steiner served as both initiator and documentarian. The Studiogalerie became a crucible for happenings and performances, providing artists with video equipment and a stage—be it for a camera or for live viewers. These dynamic environments, influenced by his years in New York and encounters with figures like Allan Kaprow and Lil Picard, positioned Steiner at the nerve centre of experimental art.

Steiner’s most radical innovations, however, would unfold through the lens of video. His "Painted Tapes" series forms a brilliant fusion of painting’s tactile nature with the ephemeral temporality of video—an audacious interplay that anticipated the multimedia installations of later generations. His documentation of iconic performances, such as Ulay’s controversial "Irritation – Da ist eine kriminelle Berührung in der Kunst" (1976)—where a Spitzweg painting was appropriated as an art-action—remains essential footage in the canon of international performance art. These archives, marked by a fine, almost poetic attention to the interstice between act and image, now reside prominently within the collection of the Hamburger Bahnhof, Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart.

But to reduce Mike Steiner to the role of chronicler would be to overlook his painterly roots and later returns to the medium. The exhibition "Color Works 1995-98" (Hamburger Bahnhof, 1999) illuminated Steiner's devotion to the possibilities of abstract painting: colour and surface, constructed with the same spirit of risk and exploration as his video works. His late-phase abstract paintings, sometimes incorporating textile elements, reveal a resolve to push painting forward, keeping dialogue alive with contemporary discourse and his Fluxus roots.

Steiner’s restless media-swapping also set him apart from contemporaries like Nam June Paik—who similarly spanned video and installation—but with Steiner there is a persistent cross-fertilisation with painting and collage. His installation and tape-based works, often developed in direct relation to other performing artists, reflect an openness and dialogical process that unites the immediate with the spiritual and the cerebral with the sensual. The result? A fluid identity—never easily labelled, yet ever resonant.

Throughout the decades, Steiner’s work was continually staged in significant exhibitions, both solo and within broader contexts (e.g., "Live to Tape" at Hamburger Bahnhof and the “Interferenzen” retrospective). From the energetic Berlin video scene to his international showings in New York, San Francisco, Cairo, and Seoul, Steiner’s art appears as part of a living archive of cultural experimentation. Today, his works stand in dialogue with legacy figures such as Bill Viola, Richard Serra, and Marina Abramovi?—names which, like Steiner’s, shaped the vocabulary of global contemporary art.

Behind the prolific output stands a biography shaped by upheaval and curiosity. Born in wartime Allenstein, raised in postwar Berlin, Steiner’s early fascination with film ran parallel to a burgeoning painterly practice. His study at the Akademie der Künste in Berlin, leadership in student art circles, and immersion in the radical 60s New York scene (under the auspices of mentors such as Robert Motherwell) fertilised a lifelong network with movers in American and European avant-gardes. His archiving instinct—collecting and producing videotapes across generations—secured his place not only as a creator but as a preserver of artistic legacy.

Philosophically, Mike Steiner’s approach was marked by ceaseless questioning: of the autonomy of art media, of the nature of documentation, and the boundaries between viewer, performer, and creator. “His legitimacy crisis regarding painting,” as documented, became a motor rather than a stumbling block, spurring his leap into performance, action, and beyond. Always, Steiner favoured inclusion, debate, and the open forum—principles now foundational to the very idea of contemporary arts in Berlin.

Fascinatingly, Steiner’s collection—much of it as yet undigitised—remains a treasure trove for future generations. For connoisseurs, critics, and students alike, Mike Steiner symbolizes a restless spirit, simultaneously a chronicler, protagonist, and visionary experimenter at the heart of 20th-century and early 21st-century contemporary art.

The contemporary relevance of Mike Steiner lies in this very hybridity and refusal to settle for boundaries. His painting, video, installations, and archive are not simply points in an artist’s CV; they are bridges between artistic past and evolving futures. In today’s landscape of digital art, interdisciplinary collaboration, and installation, Steiner’s work reads as both prophecy and challenge—inviting fresh approaches to the question, “What can art become?”

For those inspired by crossing the lines between tradition and innovation, a deeper exploration of Mike Steiner’s works—now housed in Berlin’s major collections and documented online—offers rich rewards. Visit the official site to discover more about the life, vision, and evolving works of Mike Steiner.