Danielle Mckinney’s paintings portray projections of the self depicted in dramatic, iconographic tableaus. These imagined figures stand in as the artist’s self-reflections, depicted in spare yet richly evocative scenes. There is a timeless quality to Mckinney’s images, which echo compositions across the canon of portraiture without making direct quotations, instead suggesting art history’s lingering influence on the psyche. In the same breath, the paintings draw equal inspiration from social media, incorporating and refracting contemporary photography as it frames narratives of the unconscious. Indeed, the influence of photography can be found in Mckinney’s tight croppings, her attunement to light and dark values, and her singular compositions. Nevertheless, the paintings convey a world of approximations that speaks to a universal experience, as her own alter-ego becomes a stand-in for the viewer. Mckinney’s work shows an image-maker channeling distinct visions of herself through her hand, arriving at scenes of extraordinary expression.
[excerpted from Night Gallery website: www.nightgallery.ca]