© Photo Midge Wattles.
USA
Karen Finley is an artist, performer, and author. Born in Chicago she received her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. She is an multidisciplinary artist and author. Finley is interested in freedom of expression concerns, visual culture, art education and lectures, and gives workshops widely. A recipient of many awards and grants, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, she is an arts professor in Art and Public Policy at New York University.
Finley has presented her work at the Barbican (London), Lincoln Center, The Museum of Modern Art (New York City), Bobino (Paris), American Repertory Theater (Cambridge, MA), The Guthrie (Minneapolis), The Steppenwolf (Chicago), Miami Art Basel, Documenta, The Broad (Los Angeles) and Turino (Italy); and in festivals, museums and art galleries worldwide.
Finley is the author of ten books, including her latest Covid Vortex Anxiety Opera Kitty Kaleidoscope Disco (City Lights, 2025), Je n’étais pas censée être talentueuse (Seuile, Paris, 2025), Grabbing Pussy (OR Books, 2018) and the 25th anniversary edition of Shock Treatment by City Lights. Her recent work includes: Grabbing Pussy/Parts Known, a work that considers the oppression of nostalgia revision politics and intertwines personal and social trauma; Mandala: Reimagined Columbus Circle, an interactive walk that examines the symbols and history of Columbus Circle; Creative Anonymous – a self-help, open meeting for those addicted to art – presented at Museum of Art and Design; Unicorn, Gratitude, Mystery, a recent performance that examines the pscho-sexual lust for power in US politics; Open Heart, a Holocaust memorial at Camp Gusen, Austria; and Sext ME if You Can, presented at the New Museum in New York, where she created commissioned portraits inspired by “sexts” received from the public.
