Danielle McKinney | Forest for the Trees

Danielle Mckinney | Forest for the Trees features new paintings and watercolors by Danielle Mckinney, an artist known for cinematic portraits of women in dreamlike domestic interiors. Working in oil on linen and watercolor on paper, Mckinney depicts solitary female protagonists reclining, reading, smoking, and resting in intimate interior spaces that hold both comfort and unease. Boesky Gallery, 509 West 24th Street, New York, NY 10011. May 7, 2026 — Runs through June 13, 2026. The press release describes these new works as marking a subtle shift in Mckinney’s figure-ground relationship. Her figures become looser and less defined, at times dissolving into their surroundings, while the rooms themselves become more articulated through chandeliers, lamps, modernist furniture, floral pillows, and bright blooms. This formal change reflects a period of personal and collective turmoil during which the paintings were made, with domestic space functioning less as polished stage set than as refuge. Alongside ten new paintings, the exhibition includes a suite of watercolors shown for the first time in New York. In these works, Mckinney uses a pared-down, fluid gesture to render graceful figures against stark white grounds, extending the exhibition’s meditation on uncertainty, introspection, and the possibility of being held within fragile interior worlds.