BY ROBIN HAUCK
Danielle Joy McKinney makes paintings of Black women at rest. Composed and tranquil, alone in exquisitely modern and minimalist interiors, her “ladies” as she calls them, read, sleep, smoke, lounge, luxuriate, and contemplate deeply things we can guess at but will never know.
I first encountered McKinney's paintings in 2023 in Marianne Boesky Gallery’s Frieze London exhibition. Her moody color palate, languorous poses, and impressionistic brushstrokes stood out for their quiet confidence in an art fair crowded with loud, aggressively-scaled work. She’s been gathering momentum ever since, with shows in Los Angeles, New York, Berlin, London, Maastricht and Paris, and a high-profile collaboration with Christian Dior. Now, McKinney is in residence in the Boston area as the 2025 Ruth Ann and Nathan Perlmutter Artist-in-Residence at Brandeis University.
On view through January 4, 2026 at Brandeis’ Rose Art Museum, Danielle McKinney: Tell Me More brings together thirteen of the New Jersey-based artist's small, luminous paintings for her first solo museum show in North America. I spoke with Dr. Gannit Ankori, Henry and Lois Foster Director and Chief Curator, Rose Art Museum, and Professor of Fine Arts and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at Brandeis, about the significance of McKinney’s work in the current moment, and the joys of collaborating with the artist whose star is very much on the rise.
RH: Congratulations on a remarkable season at the Rose. Tell me about how you came to curate Tell Me More, Danielle McKinney’s first solo show in North America?
GA: I came across Danielle's paintings and I was smitten. It’s not just that she continues the art historical tradition of the intimate interior or the reclining nude, she follows those traditions—and you can see that she looks at art historical precedents—but she also undoes them in many ways. She doesn’t allow the women to be objects of desire. You can tell that they have this interior life and that they are in charge. She gives them agency. They are Black women. They are taking their time. They are resting. They are contemplating and making their own worlds. So just as she uses art as world-making and meaning-making, her protagonists create their own worlds. You can tell it's not just a tangible interior space, but their own introverted, self-reflective world.
RH: Entering the gallery, I immediately experienced a full-body calming, like a long exhale. The low lighting, upholstered benches, and plum wall color really grant permission for visitors to slow down and simply be with the work. Can you tell me about how you achieved that?
GA: My curatorial philosophy is that I follow the artists. I look at the artwork and see what that specific artist and that body of work needs—space, lighting, colors—what is needed to lift and amplify the vision. I think part of it is the way I curated the show with the lights lower and the spots only on the paintings. It gives the paintings this jewel-like luminescence. The paint color is called “Porcelain,” it was discussed with Danielle.
The paintings are small in size and have this intimate feeling. People come in and their pulse goes down, they sit and identify with these women. They take a break from the exterior world that is full of noises and that pushes you in different directions. People come to the Lee Gallery and respond differently than they do to any other shows we’ve had.
RH: Danielle trained as a photographer and only began painting full time in 2021 during the pandemic. Can you talk about her evolution since then?
GA: In the show you actually see a development. Some of the works are from 2021 (Reading Room, Secret Garden) when she moved from being a photographer and taught herself how to paint. You see her brushstrokes are more outlined, more subscribed, there is a kind of stillness to the figures. Then [over the next four years] the brushstrokes get looser and freer. In the two works she made especially for the show, (From Square One and Fate, both 2025) the palette is more adventurous. The brushstrokes are loose. They are really beautiful paintings, and the more you look at them, the more you appreciate the textures. Some of the flowers almost use impasto. Colors respond within a composition. There is a dialogue between the pillows and the background and the carpet. You see it as a stunningly beautiful composition, stunningly beautiful formal brushstrokes. But then you also see that layer of these women who are confident, who take control of their own time and space and lives.
