Danielle Mckinney

Danielle Mckinney’s pensive, cinematic portraits capture solitary female protagonists in moments of leisure and respite. Hinting subtly at the busy routine of these figures’ lives, she withholds their motivations, their thoughts, their comings and goings—in turn captivating viewers with narratives implied in elusive shadows and revealing details. Mckinney’s work is in museum collections around the world, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Calif.; the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pa.; and The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York. Her work has been featured in many group exhibitions, including The Time Is Always Now: Artists Reframe the Black Figure, curated by Ekow Eshun, at the Philadelphia Museum of Art; Woman in a Rowboat at the Olivia Foundation, Mexico City; and When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting, curated by Koyo Kouoh, at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, Cape Town, South Africa. Born in Montgomery, Alabama, she lives and works in Jersey City, New Jersey. (updated 4/2026)