Liss Finney (b. 1992, Lutruwita/Tasmania) is a multidisciplinary artist living and working between Awabakal Land, Newcastle and Gadigal Land, Sydney, NSW. Her practice investigates the cultural, physical, and psychological negotiations that occur within Western deathways. Through a materially driven sculptural practice and drawing on a family heritage in funeral directing, she examines the boundaries and slippages between artefacts, rituals, and the corporeal realities of decay. Her works function as vessels for reflection on mortality, interweaving memory, material experimentation, and existential philosophy to consider how ritual and objecthood mediate our relationship to death.
She is currently a resident studio artist at The Creator Incubator, and has paintings with Stella Downer Gallery Sydney, and Leighton Contemporary, QLD.
Liss holds a BFA (Painting) and an MFA in Sculpture from the National Art School and has background in Scientific Illustration, holding a Bachelor Degree with Distinction in Natural History Illustration from the University of Newcastle. She has exhibited nationally and internationally, most recently undertaking a residency in Singapore after her work ‘Each’ was awarded Runner Up in the 2025 Brenda Clouten Travelling Scholarship. She has previously been a finalist in the Lake Prize, Hawkesbury Art Prize, Newcastle Club Art Prize, National Emerging Art Prize, and Blake Prize.
Liss is a casual drawing tutor at the National Art School and has worked for Maitland Regional Art Gallery, as the Learning and Audience Development Curator, Art Educator, and facilitated the Arts Health, Art and Dementia programme. She also works at the John Hunter Children’s Hospital and Sydney Children’s Hospital as an Arts and Health Facilitator.
