Karen Finley

Karen Finley is an American performance artist, musician, poet, and educator. Her performance art, recordings, and books are used as forms of activism. Her work frequently uses nudity and profanity. Finley incorporates depictions of sexualiy, abuse, and disenfranchisement in her work. The case, National Endowment for the Arts v. Finley (1998), argued in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, was decided against Finley and the other artists. She is a professor at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University.