Gregory Steel was born in Detroit Michigan in 1954 and raised by his maternal grandparents. Growing up in an ethnic working class neighborhood and attending a Catholic grade school Gregory learned to explore his artistic side being encouraged by his grand mother. Influenced by the automotive industry Gregory spent many years working various jobs related to the auto industry. Jobs such as a welder, toolmaker, salesman, as well as model and mold maker, short order cook, graphic designer, photographer, videographer, service station manager, apartment manager, creative consultant kept money flowing to keep Gregory's art habit in full swing. Spending many years working and making art in his free time Gregory soon realized he needed to experience a serious art education. Working full time and going to college part time Gregory earned his BFA degree and then a Masters degree from the University of Michigan after many years of dedicated effort. Finally reaching his educational goals Gregory took a position at his Alma Mater teaching sculpture and experimental media a few years latter he took a new position at the University of Michigan where he continues today.

Gregory has evolved as an artist and a person that does not make distinctions between art and life. His art, as he explains, is only an extension of who he is as a person and is not a separate activity, but one fully integrated into who he is as a person. The art of ideas is a fundamental to his working process and is at the heart of all the work to date. Moving through academic studies and struggling with the modernist dilemma Gregory soon came to depend on the feeling that the art happens within the mind of the participant and not external or with the individual object created; the experience is foremost in his work. Learning from the artists that started this work he cites Marcel Duchamp, Joseph Beuys, Lawrence Weiner and Allan Kaprow as influencing his artistic development. In 1994 Gregory was diagnosed with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia, this has affected his work and life in ways that have given him a greater focus and sense of urgency to complete his life's work. His work today takes on many faces, from object making, digital imaging, book publishing, installation, digital video, new technology and as Gregory states “I use anything and everything that will fulfill the function of the art.” That function circles around issues of the human condition, social change and Gregory's hope for humankind. An avid reader of philosophy, cultural studies, science, technology and literature his studies, artistic research and endless curiosity fuel his creativity today and for many years to come.