Steinman was born in Montreal, Quebec in 1950. She began her career as a pioneering videotape artist in Vancouver in the late seventies and evolved into creating elaborate video and multimedia installations. After returning to Montreal in 1980, her video sculptures and installations received international recognition and were included in major exhibitions and biennials. As in Vancouver, Steinman was involved with Montreal’s video and alternate art production: she was co-director of Vidéo Véhicule, the centre for independent media arts production, and also a director of the artist-run La Centrale / Powerhouse Gallery. A common theme in Steinman’s work is the fate of the disenfranchised and the dispossessed. In 2019, Whitehot Magazine of Contemporary Art wrote that she “effectively memorialises subjects denied a common name, a concrete identity, a reasonable life.” She works in multiple media, including video, photography, neon, and installation art.
