Artist Spotlight on Danielle McKinney
An artist whose languid figures particularly resonate, at the end of a collectively challenging year.
Welcome to our second Artist Spotlight written Anne Kimunguyi. Anne is a writer, editor and arts administrator at Tate with a background in history and African studies and a keen interest inĀ African art, Black diasporic art and photography.
Artist Spotlight is a new feature for paying subscribers which publishes on the last Thursday of each month.
This month Anne looks at the work of Danielle McKinney, offering us the gentle reminder that ārecuperation can be more than a reactive act in the face of a shared sense of exhaustion.ā
The comfort of solitude is what initially comes to mind when viewing Danielle McKinneyās work. Her paintings are made up of multiple portraits of Black women, in moments of relaxation, deep-thought and rest. The epitome of leisure, these women are painted in their homes, amidst a rich backdrop of colour decorating their interiors.
The private sphere of these Black women is precious, almost sacred, we are told through McKinneyās work. Moving beyond solely a validation of the importance of quietude, it is both the intentional and unintentional acts of rest, of restlessness, of mind-spiralling and thought-clarifying stillness that McKinneyās work captures. Figures shown sleeping, reading, holding their heads in worry and rubbing their neck in consideration offer little snippets into their preoccupations and how they may respond to them.
Despite painting all her life, McKinney initially trained and practised as a photographer for twenty years, originally studying in the US and France. It was only in the Covid-19 pandemic that she turned to painting as her primary practise, unable to spend time outside photographing people. Based in New Jersey, with the canvas offering McKinney the potential to conjure up entire worlds, she began painting a series of tightly cropped solo portraits. McKinneyās subjects are fictional, shown in the comfort and tranquillity of their homes, indulging in their solitariness. Velvet blues, lush greens and olive tones make up their home decor and give their environments a calm and intimate atmosphere, almost in extension of their moods.
Her paintings have a documented, cinematic quality to them, one that offers a richness to the thoughts, habits and activities of the women depicted. We do not know their names, their professions, the nature of their relationships or their daily routines and commitments beyond what we see, yet McKinneyās scene-like paintings prompt us to empathize with their fatigue, to recognise their relaxation habits, to respect their personal time and to smile at their indulgence in recreational activity.Ā The titles of McKinneyās portraits - Dream Catcher, Mercy, Our Lady, She ā point to some of the weight of responsibility that they shoulder, or to their capacity and yearning for personal fulfilment. Others ā Shelter, Shut Eye, Hindsight and Reflection, for instance ā suggest a craving for sleep, a sense of security or a state of lamentation.
Yet the vast stories that stand behind these women are in many ways left at the door as they come into their safe spaces. Some women are depicted nude, smoking cigarettes and splayed out on beds and sofas, almost as if having shed the weight of the burdens they might carry in the outside realm. Others gather themselves in sheets, or are partially obscured behind furniture, parts of their bodies hidden from our sight even as they enter the sanctity of their own homes. Their ambiguity invites us to be imaginative about their identities, to resonate with their emotions and to eventually leave them to their introspection in solitude.
In showcasing the Black women of her paintings in the comfort of domesticity, unbounded by time and indulging in acts of care, gratification or recreational activity, McKinney affirms that such recuperation can be more than a reactive act in the face of a shared sense of exhaustion. The domestic sphere is reclaimed as an open, rather than stifling, space. The potential for rest and the malleablizing of time it offers is not only deserved, but restorative. It is irregular for some, yet structured for others, at once a shared experience and still deeply personal for all. McKinney allows us to enter these private moments of her figures who, undisturbed by our gaze, demonstrate the beauty there is to be found in their mundane habits. Whether seen in moments of respite or worry, tension or absent-mindedness, their solitude shows us what it means for these Black women to recline in the simple act of being themselves.Ā
If youād like to pitch an idea for Artist Spotlight, please contact Lou at hello@shadepodcast.co.uk
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