Painter Lawrence Finney was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1963. He attended Pratt Institute from 1982 to 1984 and the School of Visual Arts, NY in 1985. His stylized figures draw their inspiration from the work of Charles White, George Tooker, Mexican muralists and social realism.  In 2002, five of his paintings were included in the exhibition Black Romantic at the Studio Museum in Harlem.

The Soulful Heart, Atrium Gallery, NJ, 1998

ld Masters, New Masters, Salena Gallery, Long Island University, Brooklyn, NY, 2001

Black Romantic: The Figurative Impulse in Contemporary African American Art, Studio Museum in Harlem, NY, 2002

Highlights from the Collection of Corrine Jennings and Joe Overstreet, O'Kane Gallery, University of Houston-Downtown College, TX, 2006

Mixing Metaphors: The Aesthetic, the Social and the Political in African American Art, Howard University Gallery of Art., Washington, DC, 2010

Harlem is Music: A Visual Interpretation, Renaissance Fine Art, NY, 2010

A Diaspora Rhythm, Elmhurst College, IL, 2011