Danielle Mckinney took up painting after pandemic lockdown restrictions forced her to press pause on her street photography practice. The new works—quiet domestic scenes of Black women in the solitude of their own homes, relaxing in dimly lit, richly decorated rooms—drew on a long history of interior scenes in art. "Her work strikes such an emotional chord with people,” says the artist’s dealer, Marianne Boesky, who first discovered her on Instagram. Over the past six years, the gallery has placed Mckinney’s work in more than 30 museums (plus the collection of actor Josh Brolin). Getting a piece can be competitive: in March 2025, Mckinney’s painting of a woman lying across a patterned carpet more than quadrupled expectations, selling for $340,255 at auction. Her spring 2026 show at Marianne Boesky also sold out. The artist’s visions of pleasure and privacy will soon find an even larger audience. Her solo museum exhibition, “Shelter,” opened at the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Fla., this spring and will travel to the New Orleans Museum of Art and the Studio Museum in Harlem.
BY SARAH CASCONE
