NOMA TO OPEN SOLO EXHIBITION OF WORKS BY CONTEMPORARY PAINTER DANIELLE MCKINNEY
On view at NOMA starting November 6, Danielle Mckinney: Shelter presents a selection of works from the last five years.
Mckinney is known for evocative paintings of solitary, reflective women and emotionally charged interior scenes.
Danielle Mckinney (American, born 1981), Sandman, 2024, 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
NEW ORLEANS – This fall, the New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) opens a survey of paintings by the American artist Danielle Mckinney. Titled Danielle Mckinney: Shelter, the exhibition includes over 40 paintings and works on paper spanning the last five years of the artist’s practice, marking her most comprehensive museum exhibition to date. McKinney was just selected as part of the TIME100 Inaugural Art class, comprised of leaders shaping the future of the field.
Danielle Mckinney: Shelter will be on view at NOMA starting November 6, 2026, through summer 2027.
“Mckinney’s paintings are profound reflections of intimate moments captured in rich painting techniques of oil and acrylic. We are honored to share this insightful survey with our visitors,” said Susan M. Taylor, The Montine McDaniel Freeman Director of NOMA. “This presentation underscores Mckinney’s reflections on the conventions of portraiture and her acute understanding of color and Modernist traditions. The exhibition perfectly represents NOMA’s commitment to presenting contemporary art within the context of a larger arc of world art history.”
The exhibition was organized by the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Florida, and is the tenth exhibition from the Norton’s Recognition of Art by Women (RAW) series.
Danielle Mckinney: Shelter showcases works that center on solitary female figures within interior settings, offering glimpses into moments of private contemplation, respite, or ease. 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. By balancing emotional resonance with essential unknowability, Mckinney transforms quiet moments into meditations on solitude, privacy, and shared human connection.
Top: Danielle Mckinney (American, born 1981), After the Dance, 2022. 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.
Bottom: Danielle Mckinney (American, born 1981), Yesterday, 2025. 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.
“Mckinney’s paintings unfold like moments suspended in time,” said J. Rachel Gustafson, Chief Curatorial Officer at the Norton Museum of Art. “They invite viewers to consider the emotional and spiritual dimensions of solitude, and how stillness itself can become a site of imagination and strength. Her work captures an interior world that feels both deeply personal and profoundly human.”
Mckinney’s technique deepens the allure of her work, drawing on art history, color theory, and portraiture traditions. Her figures emerge from dark grounds, recalling the tenebrism used by artists for centuries to focus the viewer’s attention and heighten the atmosphere. The compositions also contain literal references to Modern painting, not only through the gestural strokes of paint, but also through the inclusion of paintings within paintings with allusions to works by artists such as Matisse and Picasso. This layering of historical references and techniques transforms Mckinney’s domestic spaces from ordinary rooms into settings that feel luxurious and exclusive, mirroring the idea of rest as a coveted commodity.
“This exhibition is an important opportunity for our visitors to consider the roles of painting and portraiture in the 21st century.” said Anne Collins Smith, Chief Curator at NOMA. “We hope that Mckinney’s concept of ‘shelter’ resonates with larger conversations around art, embodiment, and self-possession.”
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Danielle Mckinney: Shelter is organized by the Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach, Florida, and is the tenth exhibition from the Norton’s Recognition of Art by Women (RAW) series. The exhibition is curated by J. Rachel Gustafson, Chief Curatorial Officer, Norton Museum of Art.
The exhibition travels to the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, in fall 2027.
PUBLICATION
A full-color, 120-page catalogue of Danielle Mckinney: Shelter will be published this fall, timed with the presentation at NOMA. The volume includes an interview and newly commissioned essays by J. Rachel Gustafson, Imani Perry, and curator/critic Ekow Eshun. The publication marks the artist’s first major monograph. The book is published by Greg R. Miller & Co. and designed by Miko McGinty, Inc.
The exhibition catalogue will be available in store and online through the NOMA Museum Shop.
NOMA NOW AND RELATED PROGRAMMING
Museum members get a first look at the exhibition during a preview on Thursday, November 5.
The opening of Danielle Mckinney: Shelter is part of NOMA Now, a weekend celebrating contemporary art at the New Orleans Museum of Art. Bringing together artists and visitors from New Orleans and around the world, NOMA Now will include tours, studio visits, and exclusive events hosted by NOMA’s Collectors’ Circle, a group of museum patrons dedicated to supporting contemporary art at NOMA through acquisitions and exhibitions.
On Friday, November 6, the museum hosts the annual fundraiser LOVE in the Garden Presented by Frischhertz in the Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden. This signature event spotlights NOMA’s Besthoff Sculpture Garden, which includes 100 works of art from the 19th century to the present day set in the unique Louisiana landscape.
For more information on NOMA Now and joining the Collectors’ Circle, contact Elenore Falshaw, Chief Advancement Officer, at efalshaw@noma.org.
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ABOUT DANIELLE MCKINNEY
Born in Montgomery, Alabama, Danielle Mckinney studied at Parsons School of Design in New York, earned an MFA in 2013 and received her BFA from the Atlanta College of Arts in 2005.
Mckinney's work is in numerous museum collections including the New Orleans Museum of Art; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.; Dallas Museum of Art; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, New York; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Her work has been featured in a number of group exhibitions, including Presence in the Pause: Interiority and its Radical Immanence curated by Rachel Adams at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts in Omaha, Nebraska; When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, Cape Town, South Africa; IN A DREAM YOU SAW A WAY TO SURVIVE AND YOU WERE FULL OF JOY at The Contemporary Austin, Texas; and Black Melancholia at the Hessel Museum of Art, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.
The artist lives and works in Jersey City, New Jersey.
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Media Contact
Charlie Tatum
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About noma and the Besthoff Sculpture Garden
The New Orleans Museum of Art (NOMA) and its Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden are home to innovative exhibitions, installations, educational programs, and research. Exploring human creativity across time, cultures, and disciplines, the global scope of the museum’s initiatives open a vibrant dialogue with the history and culture of New Orleans. The museum stewards a collection of nearly 50,000 works, with exceptional holdings in African art, photography, decorative arts, and Japanese art, as well as strengths in American and French art, and an expanding collection highlighting contemporary artists. The museum’s exhibitions and dynamic learning and engagement offerings serve as a forum for visitors to engage with diverse perspectives, share cultural experiences, and foster a life of learning at all ages. Recent exhibitions include New African Masquerades: Artistic Innovations and Collaborations, Sand, Ash, Heat: Glass at the New Orleans Museum of Art, Called to the Camera: Black American Studio Photographers, and The Orléans Collection (an exhibition of forty European masterpieces from the collection of the city’s namesake, Philippe II, Duc d’Orléans).
NOMA’s 12-acre Sydney and Walda Besthoff Sculpture Garden expands visitors’ experiences of the museum with one of the most notable sculpture gardens in the country. The Besthoff Sculpture Garden, free and open to the public seven days a week, has nearly 100 sculptures and outdoor works of art situated in a unique landscape featuring Spanish moss-laden live oaks and a sinuous lagoon surrounded by an expansive ecosystem of native plants. The works in the garden range from the 19th to the 21st centuries, with pieces by Auguste Rodin, Louise Bourgeois, Ida Kohlmeyer, Claes Oldenburg, Larry Bell, Sean Scully, Fred Wilson, Maya Lin, Ursula von Rydingsvard, Teresita Fernández, Ugo Rondinone, Hank Willis Thomas, and many others. The Besthoff Sculpture Garden features contemporary design elements—including a sculpture pavilion, an amphitheater, and an architecturally significant canal link bridge connecting the garden’s original 2003 footprint with a 2019 expansion. Its water management practices support the health and resiliency of New Orleans City Park and the surrounding environment. Throughout the year, NOMA hosts outdoor programs in the Besthoff Sculpture Garden including festivals, performances, wellness classes, tours, and more.