KAREN FINLEY

NADA 2020

December 1st - December 5th

FIERMAN presents a series of new works on paper by renowned performance artist Karen Finley. It will be the gallery’s second collaboration with Finley following her inclusion in the acclaimed 2019 group show Circus of Books. In addition to the online portion of the fair, we are presenting eleven new drawings at MARINARO, 1 Oliver St, NY.

Since the Trump inauguration, Finley has been making text drawings extrapolating sexually and politically charged words often from quotes or the news – pussy; dick pic; Stormy; Nasty – to name a few in a washy, inky cursive honed as a school girl in the 1960’s. These drawings were originally created around a performance in which Finley portrayed the president at REDCAT in Los Angeles in 2017. Since the pandemic she has had a daily practice of making drawings relevant to the political moment on found vintage paper from the 1950’s and 1960’s directly calling out the president and his coterie. The texts – Ivanka Pay Up; you fucking lost; End the Patriarchy – are juxtaposed against the maliciously benign imagery from a racist, oppressive era romanticized by the Republican right.

Karen Finley works in many mediums, including installation, video, performance, public art, visual art, entertainment, television and film, memorials, music, and literature. She has presented at world-wide venues, such as Paris’ Bobino, London’s ICA, and Lincoln Center. Her work is in collections such as the Museum of Contemporary Art and the Pompidou. Books: 25th anniversary edition of Shock Treatment (City Lights 2015); Reality Shows (Feminist Press 2011); and George and Martha (Verso, 2008). Recent work includes Artist Anonymous (Museum of Art and Design, 2014); Written in Sand; Open Heart (Camp Gusen, Austria); Broken Negative; and Sext ME if You Can (New Museum). Awards/grants: Guggenheim, NYSCA, and NEA fellowships; Richard J Massey Foundation Arts and Humanities award (2015). MFA, San Francisco Art Institute.