Donald O'Finn's Friends

Donald O'Finn's Page

I am...: I was born in San Francisco California in 1957. As a young man my time was absorbed with Art. I joined the military for educational benefits, and upon discharge purchased one of the first commercial VCRs available and started playing with it, appropriating TV imagery. Awarded a scholarship to the San Francisco Art Institute for Painting, where I received a Masters degree in Art. Upon graduation I moved to New York to Paint while still creating the video appropriations. To financially survive I became a bartender. The video work became more and more influenced by my commitment to painting and particularly art, until I eventually quit painting to totally focus on the Video, incorporating the new digital technology available.
I became a bar manager in the 90s and started screening some of my video work 24/7 at the bar (Freddy’s bar and backroom.) The video became a cult fixture and contributed to the great success of the new establishment, and gained praise in the media. In the mid 90s I became a core member of the “live performance audio/video media band” known as rev.99 that toured nationally as well as internationally. Various videos of mine have been screened @ Lincoln Center and Anthology Film Archive in New York, the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, and Parkers Box Art gallery in Williamsburg Brooklyn. I have twice been listed in the Village Voice “Best Of” for Video

About my artwork: I re-purpose, re-contextualize, effect, and weave appropriated media samples into the dreams a television Might have.
My work has screened at the Hirshhorn Museum of Art, and has both cult notoriety and is film course curriculum at various N.Y. colleges.