Danielle Joy McKinney
Danielle Joy McKinney
Born in Montgomery, Alabama in 1981, Danielle Mckinney completed her BFA at Atlanta College of Arts in 2005 and her MFA at Parsons School of Design in 2013.
Danielle Mckinney (b. 1981, Montgomery, Alabama) creates narrative paintings that often focus on the solitary female protagonist. In these intimate portraits, Mckinney captures the figure immersed in various leisurely pursuits and moments of deep reflection. Engaging with themes of spirituality and self, her paintings uncover hidden narratives and conjure dreamlike spaces, often within the interior domestic sphere. With a background in photography, Mckinney paints with an acute awareness of the female gaze, employing deeply colorful hues and nuanced details with cinematic effect.
Her work is in private and public collections including the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington DC; Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas, TX; Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL; The Israel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel; and the Hessel Foundation Collection at Bard, Annandale-on-Hudson, NY. Her work has been included in the exhibitions Heroic Bodies at the Rudolph Tegners Museum, Dronningmølle, Denmark, IN A DREAM YOU SAW A WAY TO SURVIVE AND YOU WERE FULL OF JOY at The Contemporary Austin, Uncanny Interiors at Nicola Vassel Gallery, and Black Melancholia at Hessel Museum of Art. She is represented by Marianne Boesky Gallery in New York and Night Gallery in Los Angeles. Mckinney lives and works in Jersey City, NJ.
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023
Los Angeles, CA, Night Gallery, May 2023
2022
New York, NY, Marianne Boesky Gallery, Golden Hour, October 13 – November 12, 2022
2021
Aspen, CO, Marianne Boesky Gallery, Midnight Oil, June 24 – July 25, 2021
Los Angeles, CA, Night Gallery, Smoke and Mirrors, May 22 – June 19, 2021
New York, NY, Fortnight Institute, Saw My Shadow, April 10 – May 15, 2021
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2023
Omaha, NE, Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Presence in the Pause: Interiority and its Radical Immanence, May 20 – September 17, 2023
London, UK, David Zwirner, So let us all be citizens too, curated by Ebony L. Haynes, April 20 – May 26, 2023
New York, NY, LGDR, Rear View, April 18 – June 3, 2023
Dallas, TX, Dallas Museum of Art, Dallas Art Fair, and NorthPark Center, Talk of the Town: A Dallas Museum of Art Pop-Up Exhibition, curated by Dr. Anna Katherine Brodbeck, March 21 – April 30, 2023
2022
Cape Town, South Africa, Goodman Gallery, A Different Now is Close Enough to Exhale on You, November 24, 2022 – January 21, 2023
Cape Town, South Africa, Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting, November 20, 2022 – September 3, 2023
Scottsdale, AZ, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, In Our Time: Selections from the Singer Collection, curated by Allison Glenn, October 1, 2022 – February 12, 2023
Austin, TX, The Contemporary Austin, IN A DREAM YOU SAW A WAY TO SURVIVE AND YOU WERE FULL OF JOY, September 17, 2022 – February 12, 2023
Dronningmølle, Denmark, Rudolph Tegners Museum and Statue Park, Heroic Bodies, August 20 – October 23, 2022
New York, NY, Nicola Vassell Gallery, Uncanny Interiors, July 7 – August 20, 2022
Annandale-on-Hudson, NY, Center for Curatorial Studies and Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College, Black Melancholia, curated by Nana Adusei-Poku, June 25 – October 16, 2022
Fort Worth, TX, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Women Painting Women, May 15 – September 25, 2022
Miami, FL, Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, Fire Figure Fantasy: Selections from ICA Miami’s Collection, May 12 – October 16, 2022 2021
New Castle, UK, Workplace Gallery, Reflections: Part 1: Female Figures by Women Artists, November 20, 2021 – January 19, 2022
Dallas, TX, Green Family Art Foundation, Black Bodies, White Spaces: Invisibility and Hypervisibility, curated by Aindrea Emelife, October 9, 2021 – January 27, 2022
Taipei, Taiwan, Asia Art Center, My Secret Garden, September 18 – November 21, 2021 Los Angeles, CA, Night Gallery, Frieze Online Viewing Room, May 5 – 14, 2021 ASPEN New York, NY, Flag Art Foundation, and I will wear you in my heart of heart, May 1 – August 13, 2021
New York, NY, Half Gallery, Friend Zone, curated by Vaughn Spann, January 28 – February 24, 2021
Dallas, TX, Green Family Art Foundation, Black Bodies, White Spaces: Invisibility & Hypervisibility, October 9, 2021 – January 27, 2022
BIBLOGRAPHY
2023
Ford, Lauren Moya. “What Can Art Do for Women?,” Hyperallergic (January 19, 2023) [online]
Kakar, Arun. “6 Collectors on the Artists, Shows, and Trends to Watch in 2023,” Artsy (January 9, 2023) [online] Woodcock, Victoria. “Art’s nude awakening,” Financial Times, HTSI (January 25, 2023) Pg. 50–52
2022
Eckardt, Stephanie. “In the Studio With Danielle Mckinney, the Artist Bringing Intimate Moments to Life,” W Magazine (September 28, 2022) [online]
Galerie Editors. “Next Big Thing: Danielle McKinney,” Galerie Magazine, Winter Issue (November 2022) Pg. 112
Hopkins, Zoë. “In Danielle Mckinney's Lyrical Paintings, Black Women Reclaim Domestic Space,” Artsy (October 31, 2022) [online]
Keenan, Annabel. “Danielle Mckinney Embraces the Golden Hour,” Cultured (October 12, 2022) [online]
Okeowo, Alexis. “The Interior Lives of Danielle Mckinney,” Vogue (September 20, 2022) Pg. 68–70
2021
Bellot, Gabrielle. “How Black Horror Became America’s Most Powerful Cinematic Genre,” The New York Times Style Magazine (November 10, 2021) Pg. 50–56
Cranston, Molly. “Danielle McKinney’s Smoke and Mirrors,” The Editorial Magazine (June 21, 2021)
Farr, Kristin. “Danielle Mckinney: Comfort and Quietude” Juxtapoz Magazine, Summer 2021 n.218 (May 2021) Pg. 62–69
Gingeras, Alison. “Taming the Bird: Danielle McKinney,” Mousse Magazine (May 2021)
Jansen, Charlotte. “Elephant’s Pick of the Artists Making a Mark in April” Elephant Magazine (April 12, 2021)
Jansen, Charlotte. “Why Danielle Mckinney Abandoned Photography in Favour of Painting” Elephant Magazine (June 2021)
Kearns, Sarah. “Danielle McKinney’s Paintings Capture Women in Moments of Deep Reflection” Hypebeast (July 7, 2021)
Samper, Cristina. “Experience the Poetic Solitude in Danielle Mckinney’s Body of Work, “Saw My Shadow” at Fortnight Institute, NY” Art of Choice (April 29, 2021)
Pricco, Evan. “Saw My Shadow: New Works by Danielle Mckinney” Juxtapoz Magazine (April 12, 2021)
Valentine, Victoria L. “Danielle McKinney’s Portraits are Self-Reflective: ‘Sometimes They’re Me. Sometimes They’re an Emotion I’m Feeling’” Culture Type (June 2, 2021)
Woodward, Daisy. “Free at Last: Brilliant Things to Do This May” AnOther Magazine (May 4, 2021)