Liss Finney is an Australian artist living and working between Awabakal Country in Newcastle and Gadigal Land, Sydney, NSW. Her practice spans painting, video, installation, and sculpture, delving into her multi-generational family heritage in funeral directing and the deeply human awareness of one's own mortality. Through sculptural practice she examines the separation between the symbolic vestiges of death - artefacts, rituals, and cultural markers - and the corporeal reality of decay. Combining ephemeral and enduring materials, and engaged repetitive, ritualistic processes she investigate themes of presence, absence, and the porous nature of the body. Acknowledging death as a universal and deeply personal truth. She is interested in how objects can function as both scaffolds of remembrance and facades that obscure the true nature of mortality. Finney’s work forms part of a broader inquiry into how ritual objects mediate deep psychological needs.
She is currently a resident studio artist at The Creator Incubator, and has paintings with Stella Downer Gallery Sydney, and Leighton Contemporary, QLD.
Liss has a background in Scientific Illustration, holding a Bachelor Degree with Distinction in Natural History Illustration from the University of Newcastle, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts at the National Art School (Painting). She has exhibited across NSW, most recently 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 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, and is a casual drawing tutor at the National Art School.
