Michael Steiner Borek is a Czech-American photographer, born and raised in Prague. Due to the political “sins” of his father under communism, he was unable to enroll at the university of his choice. So he attended the School of Economics, mostly to avoid the two-year military duty. After graduating in the 1980s, he realized that he did not want to work as an economist under the the old regime. Instead, to the horror of his parents, he took a job as a night watchman. During the day, he attended intensive English courses. After passing the required exams, he started working as a freelance interpreter, which gave him the flexibility to pursue his interests. One of them, photography, stayed with him all his life, and later turned into his second career.
In 1992, Borek moved to the United States, and in 1997, he started interpreting as a contractor for the American government, working for several US Presidents and cabinet secretaries.
In 2006, Borek became a member of the Multiple Exposures Gallery in the Torpedo Factory in Alexandria, Virginia. In 2008, he had a solo exhibition at the Czech Embassy in Washington, DC, and, in 2009, he was a featured artist in the Rayko Gallery in San Francisco. His photographs from an abandoned lace factory in Scranton, Pennsylvania, were selected for juried shows by curators from the Corcoran, Whitney, Hirshhorn, Getty, and Phillips museums. One of them won second prize in the fine art category of the international competition of FotoWeek DC in Washington. In 2011, one of Borek’s solo exhibitions featuring his works from this portfolio was ranked as one of the ten best photography exhibitions in Washington, DC, by photography critic Louis Jacobson. In 2012, the Maryland State Arts Council awarded Borek an Individual Artist Award and Grant. In 2013, the US Embassy in the Czech Republic presented a solo retrospective exhibition of Borek’s photography at the American Center in Prague, and in May 2014, this exhibition was shown in Pilsen, Czech Republic. In June 2014, Borek had a solo exhibition at the Czech Embassy in Washington, DC, as a part of celebration of 90th anniversary of death of Franz Kafka. In 2015, BBLA Gallery in the Bohemian National Hall in New York, NY, presented his project What Would Sudek Do? in a solo exhibition. In 2017, his project Treachery of Images was presented at the Redline Contemporary Art Center in Denver during the Month of Photography.
Borek currently splits his time between USA and the Czech Republic. In 2018, he became a member of the Association of Professional Photographers of the Czech Republic. In 2018, several of his projects were shown in a solo exhibition in a historic synagogue in Prague. In 2023, he presented his Treachery of Images project in a solo exhibition at the Pardubice University Gallery. In 2024, his latest project Steiner Bezexistence was shown in a group exhibition of second-generation Holocaust survivors at the Katzen Arts Center in Washington, DC, and in a solo exhibition at U mistra s palmou gallery in Náchod, Czech Republic.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS AND AWARDS
2025
Galerie FSv, Prague Czech Republic: V pohybu (group, APF) Curators: Barbora Reichová, Petr Kliment, and Miloš Sedláček
2024
Galerie U mistra s palmou, Náchod, Czech Republic: Steiner Bezexistence (solo)
Katzen Art Center at the American University Museum, Washington, DC: Art and the Demands of Memory (works by second generation holocaust survivors) Curator: Aneta Georgievska-Shine
2023
Pardubice University Gallery, Czech Republic: Treachery of Images (solo) Curator: Tomáš Lahoda
Galerie 4, Cheb, Czech Republic: Magie místa (group, APF)
Galerie 1, Prague, Czech Republic: Magie místa (group, APF) Curators: Vladimír Kysela and Petr Štěpán
2019
Prague Water Treatment Industrial Monument, Czech Republic (group – M Artist Association)
172 Gallery, Klatovy, Czech Republic (group – M Artist Association) Curator: Václav Špale
2018
Palmovka Synagogue, Prague, Czech Republic: From the White House to Libeň (solo)
Curator: Václav Špale
Multiple Exposures Gallery, Alexandria, VA: Aimless Walk Reprise (solo)
2017
Redline Contemporary Art Center, Denver, CO: Month of Photography (featured artist, Treachery of Images) Curator: Mark Sink
Klompching Gallery, New York City, NY: Fresh 2017 (Treachery of Images) (group) Curators: W.M. Hunt and Darren Ching
CCBC’s Institute of Art Design and Interactive Media, Cattonsville Gallery, Baltimore, MD: We the People (featured artist, Treachery of Images)
2016
National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC: Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition (semi-finalist)
American Center for Physics, College Park, MD: LightWeight (with Craig Cahoon and Robert Wechsler) Curator: Sarah Tanguy, Art in the Embassies
Multiple Exposures Gallery, Alexandria, VA: Treachery of Images/The White House (solo)
2015
BBLA Gallery in the Bohemian National Hall, New York, NY: What Would Sudek Do? (solo)
Cue Art Foundation, New York, NY: Country, Home (group) Curator: Kayleigh Bryant Greenwell
Fotoweek DC, Washington, DC: Places of DC, 1st prize (group)
Multiple Exposures Gallery, Alexandria, VA: Photo’15 (group)
Curator: Sarah Greenough, Senior Curator and Head, Department of Photographs, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
2014
Czech Embassy, Washington, DC: They Never Update the Lists (solo)
US Point and Research Educational Library, Pilsner, Czech Republic: Wide Asleep/Half Awake (solo)
Multiple Exposures Gallery, Alexandria, VA: Invitational Photography Exhibition (group)
Curator: Jack Rasmussen, Director and Curator, American University Museum, Washington, DC
2013
American Center at the US Embassy, Prague, Czech Republic: Wide Asleep/Half Awake (solo)
Multiple Exposures Gallery, Alexandria, VA: What Would Sudek Do? (solo)
Arlington Arts Center, Arlington, VA: Options 2013 (15th biennial exhibition of the WPA)
Curator: Gerald Ross, Maryland Institute College of Art, Washington Project for the Arts
Washington Project for the Arts, Washington, DC: Auction Gala (group) Curator: Klaus Ottman, Phillips Collection, Washington, DC
2012
Maryland State Arts Council: 2012 Individual Artist Award (grant)
Multiple Exposures Gallery, Alexandria, VA: Photographers at the Factory (group)
Curator: Brooks Jensen (LensWork Publishing)
2011
Fotoweek DC, Washington, DC: International Awards Competition, Fine Art Category (2nd prize) (group)
Multiple Exposures Gallery, Alexandria, VA: Effective Immediately (solo)
Artishpere, Arlington, VA: Photo 11: Annual Juried Mid Atlantic Photo Exhibition (group) Curator: Amanda Maddox, Corcoran Gallery of Art
Flash Foto DC, Crystal City, VA: Juried Photography Exhibition (group) Curator: Philip Brookman, Corcoran Gallery of Art
Dumbarton Church, Washington, DC: Wide Asleep/Half Awake (solo) Curator: Ginny Barnes, Dumbarton Concert Gallery
Viridian Artists, New York, NY: 1st International Juried Photography Exhibition (group) Curator: Elisabeth Sussman, Whitney Museum of American Art
Washington Project for the Arts, Washington, DC: Auction Gala (group) Curator: Milena Kalinovska, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Soho Photo Gallery, New York, NY: Krappy Kamera International Juried Competition (group) Curators: Phillip S. Block and Steve Rooney, International Center of Photography
Project Basho, Philadelphia, PA: Onward 11 (group) Curator: Larry Fink, Photographer
2010
Photoworks, Washington, DC: Fotoweek DC 2010 Photo Slam (3rd Prize) (juried competition)
RayKo Photo Center, San Francisco, CA: International Plastic Camera Show (group, featured artist) Curator: Ann Jastrab, Gallery Director, RayKo Photo Center
ArtSpace, Richmond, VA: Strassen Kunst (Honorary Mention) (group) Curator: Martin McFadden, President, ArtSpace
1212 Gallery, Richmond, VA: Half Awake (Night) (three-person exhibition)
2009
Lyceum Theater Gallery, San Diego, CA: The Art of the Photography Show (group) Curator: Charlotte Cotton, Head of the Photography Department, Los Angeles County Museum of Art
12 12 Gallery, Richmond, VA: 2009 National Juried Photography Exhibition (group) Curator: Julian Cox, Curator of Photography, High Museum of Art, Atlanta
Art Space, Richmond, VA: Radius 250 (honorary mention) (group) Curator: Marlene Rothacker, Director of Exhibitions, International Art & Artists
Multiple Exposures Gallery, Alexandria, VA: The Bridges of Montgomery County (solo)
Photoworks, Glen Echo, MD: Wide Asleep-Half Awake (solo)
2008
The Embassy of the Czech Republic, Washington, DC: Wide Asleep (solo)
Ellipse Art Center, Arlington, VA: Photo 08 (group) Curator: David Griffin, Director of Photography, National Geographic
Fotoweek DC Headquarters, Washington, DC: International Exhibition (group)
The Art League, Alexandria, VA: Fotoweek DC Exhibition (Best in Show Award) (group) Curators: James Steele and Craig Sterling
Target Gallery, Alexandria, VA (group) Curator: Stephen Bennett Phillips, Fine Arts Program Director, Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System
2007
Viridian Artists, New York, NY: 18th National Juried Exhibition (group) Curator: Charlotta Kotik, Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, NY
Manhattan Arts International, New York, NY: 24th Anniversary Competition (Best in Photography Award) (group) Curator: Renée Phillips, Founder and Director, Manhattan Arts International
Cooperstown Art Association, Cooperstown, NY: 72nd Annual National (New Genre Prize) (group) Curator: Felicia Blum, Associate Museum Educator, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, and Walter Dusenbery, Sculptor
Art Works, Richmond, VA: Radius 250 (group) Curator: Ragan Cole-Cunningham, Director of Exhibitions, Contemporary Art Center of Virginia, and Curator, Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles
Multiple Exposures Gallery, Alexandria, VA: Words Left Over (solo)
Photoworks, Glen Echo, MD: Urbania (two-person exhibition with Michael Lang)
12 12 Gallery, Richmond, VA: 2007 National Juried Exhibition (Honorary Mention(group) Curator: Lee Hansley, Raleigh Arts Commission, Raleigh, NC
Axis Gallery, Sacramento, CA: 2007 Annual Juried Exhibition (group) Curator: Renny Pritikin, Director of Richard L. Nelson Gallery, University of California, Davis, CA