Danielle Mckinney: Shelter is a survey exhibition of paintings spanning the last six years of the artist’s practice.

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.

 Shelter is Mckinney’s largest museum exhibition to date. It offers a collective understanding of the artist’s gift for weaving together art history, emotionally resonant subjects, and beautifully rendered paintings. Layering technique and reference, Mckinney’s sensual interiors become necessary sites of spiritual restoration, proving internal shelter is fostered through authority over one’s own time. As Mckinney has shared: “We live in a world where we’re running. There’s beauty in rest.”


Danielle Mckinney: Shelter is organized by the Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach, Florida, and is the tenth exhibition from the Norton’s Recognition of Art by Women (RAW) exhibition series. The exhibition is curated by J. Rachel Gustafson, Chief Curatorial Officer, Norton Museum of Art.

Yesterday

2025

Danielle Mckinney (American, born 1981)

Oil on linen

18 x 14 in. (45.7 x 35.6 cm)

Private Collection © Danielle Mckinney. Courtesy of the artist, Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York and Aspen, and Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin | Paris | London | Marfa. Photo Credit: Pierre Le Hors

After the Dance

2022

Danielle Mckinney (American, born 1981)

Acrylic on canvas

40 x 30 in. (101.6 x 76.2 cm)

Philadelphia Museum of Art: Gift of Dr. Ning Lin and Tianyue Jiang, 2023-119-1 © Danielle Mckinney. Courtesy of the artist, Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York and Aspen, and Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin | Paris | London | Marfa. Photo Credit: Pierre Le Hors

Landslide

2025

Danielle Mckinney (American, born 1981)

Watercolor on paper

14 x 11 in. (35.6 x 27.9 cm)

Private Collection, NY © Danielle Mckinney. Courtesy of the artist, Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York and Aspen, and Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin | Paris | London | Marfa. Photo Credit: Pierre Le Hors

Read the Room

2024

Danielle Mckinney (American, born 1981)

Oil on linen

18 x 24 in. (45.7 x 61 cm)

Forman Family Collection © Danielle Mckinney. Courtesy of the artist, Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York and Aspen, and Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin | Paris | London | Marfa. Photo Credit: Pierre Le Hors

Sandman

2024

Danielle Mckinney (American, born 1981)

Oil on linen

20 x 16 in. (50.8 x 40.6 cm)

Private Collection. © Danielle Mckinney. Courtesy of the artist, Marianne Boesky Gallery, New York and Aspen, and Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin | Paris | London | Marfa. Photo Credit: Pierre Le Hors