Karen FInley

Karen Finley (she/her) is an interdisciplinary artist, poet, and performer. Born in Chicago, she received her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. Finley's performances and visual art have been presented internationally at venues such as The Barbican in London, Lincoln Center, Museum of Modern Art, Bobino in Paris, and Art Basel. She is the author of ten books, including COVID Vortex Anxiety Opera Kitty Kaleidoscope Disco (City Lights, 2025), Grabbing Pussy (OR Books, 2018) and Shock Treatment (City Lights, 1990) reissued and expanded by City Lights in a 25th anniversary edition in 2015. A recipient of many awards including a Guggenheim Fellowship, Finley is an Arts Professor in Art and Public Policy at NYU. 

Finley was the named plaintiff for the Supreme Court case National Endowment for the Arts v. Finley that challenged the decency provision in government grants to artists through the National Endowment for the Arts.