Karen Finley

Karen Finley (born 1956) 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 sexuality, abuse, and disenfranchisement in her work. She is a professor at the Tisch School of the Arts at New York University.

Karen Finley has written various books that focus on controversial topics. She wrote Shock Treatment, Enough Is Enough: Weekly Meditations for Living Dysfunctionally, the Martha Stewart satire Living It Up: Humorous Adventures in Hyperdomesticity, Pooh Unplugged (detailing the eating and psychological disorders of Winnie the Pooh and his friends), and A Different Kind of Intimacy - a later collection of her works. Her poem "The Black Sheep" is among her best-known works; it was displayed as public art in New York City for one month. Finley's poetry is included in The Outlaw Bible of American Poetry.

She was a party to the legal case National Endowment for the Arts v. Finley (1998), which argued before the U.S. Supreme Court that it was unconstitutional to award art grants on the basis of community decency standards. The case was decided against Finley and the other artists.