Danielle Mckinney | Forest for the Trees

Danielle Mckinney explores abstraction and natural forms in a new body of work.

Why go

Mckinney's practice engages deeply with art history—drawing on Zurbarán's haunting portraiture, Matisse's gestural color, Vermeer's light, and Hopper's voyeuristic interiors—while her work is held in major collections including the Met, Hirshhorn, and LACMA. This exhibition coincides with a major survey at the Norton Museum of Art.

What to expect

Ten new oil paintings and a suite of watercolors on paper. The oils feature loose, impressionistic brushwork evoking Vuillard, with figures melting into richly realized domestic spaces lit by ornate chandeliers and mid-century furniture; the watercolors present graceful figures in minimal marks against stark white backgrounds.

Things to know

• Born 1981 in Montgomery, Alabama; earned BFA from Atlanta College of Art (2005) and MFA from Parsons School of Design (2013)
• Work held in permanent collections at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Hirshhorn Museum, LACMA, High Museum of Art, Philadelphia Museum of Ar
• Currently on view: Danielle Mckinney: Shelter survey at Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, through October 4, 2026
• Featured in major group exhibitions including When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting (Zeitz MOCAA) and The Time Is Always
• Lives and works in Jersey City, New Jersey