Danielle Mckinney: Shelter

This spring, the Norton will present Danielle Mckinney: Shelter, a survey exhibition of paintings spanning the last five years of the artist’s practice. As the tenth artist to be exhibited as part of the Recognition of Art by Women (RAW) exhibition series, Danielle Mckinney (American, born 1981) creates artworks that depict her female subjects in private moments of solitude.

The women in Mckinney’s paintings possess a timeless quality, often situated within familiar domestic scenes that evoke a subtle nostalgia. While viewers may recognize the intimate spaces or the emotions reflected in the subject’s knowing glances, the paintings also maintain a distance. Mckinney balances this deep emotional resonance with the essential unknowability of the subject, reminding us that the full familiarity of another’s inner world remains outside our reach. This tension between the known experience and the private self creates a magnetic pull, transforming moments of quiet introspection into meditations on solitude, respite, and shared human connection.