Danielle McKinney

Danielle McKinney (born 1981, Montgomery, Alabama) is an American painter whose intimate, psychologically charged works center Black women in moments of solitude, reflection, and interiority. Working primarily in oil on linen, McKinney creates quiet, atmospheric scenes drawn from memory, personal photographs, and imagined narratives, often depicting women alone in domestic or private spaces. Her paintings resist spectacle, instead foregrounding stillness, vulnerability, and self-possession as forms of power. Through muted palettes, sparse compositions, and deliberate pacing, McKinney reclaims space for Black female interior life beyond stereotype or performance. She earned her BFA from the Atlanta College of Art and has exhibited widely in solo and group exhibitions in the United States and internationally. McKinney lives and works in Jersey City, New Jersey.