Danielle McKinney at the Museo Novecento

Through February 28, 20 works by the artist in dialogue with the permanent collection

Until February 28, the Museo Novecento opens its doors to another leading figure in contemporary painting, Danielle McKinney (Montgomery, Alabama, 1981), an American artist recently named by TIME as one of the 100 most influential figures in the art world of 2026. Tra noi, curated by Sergio Risaliti and Stefania Rispoli, brings together 20 works—some of which have never been exhibited before—in dialogue with paintings and sculptures from the Alberto Della Ragione Collection, part of the museum’s permanent collection.

Courtesy of the artist © Danielle Mckinney

With intense and sophisticated lyricism, Mckinney’s canvases seem like places of contemplation where even the slightest gesture takes on intensity. The protagonists of her paintings are women portrayed in moments of solitude within meticulously constructed domestic settings, like small theaters of intimacy. At once close and distant, they are suspended and lost in their thoughts. Observing them means assuming the role of silent witnesses, discreet guests in a scene that has already begun and is destined to continue beyond our presence. Their gazes and poses seem to welcome us across an invisible threshold that can be crossed only on tiptoe: entering their space requires us to slow down, observe, and let ourselves be enveloped by the atmosphere evoked by the painting, without presuming to know the “before” and “after” of the “script,” thereby leaving the narrative structure open.

Courtesy of the artist © Danielle Mckinney

Initially trained as a photographer, Mckinney creates images with a strong cinematic quality that demonstrate a deep awareness of the relationship formed between the viewer and the viewed. Her works rework a long iconographic tradition that has represented the female body as an object of male desire and contemplation, deconstructing it from within. Her women, however, seem to elude external expectations; freed from work, relationships, and the expectations the world projects onto them, they exist for themselves. It is perhaps precisely in this dimension of silent truth that we recognize something of ourselves. An impetus to look in the mirror and ask ourselves: “What remains of us when we are alone?” “What do we offer to the gaze of others, beyond the logic of possession and dependence?”

The exhibition places McKinney’s works in dialogue with several 20th-century Italian masters, including Arturo Martini, Felice Casorati, Giorgio Morandi, and Filippo de Pisis, creating resonances around the themes of light, space, and the figure. Rounding out the project is a selection of poems by Lucille Clifton, Louise Glück, and June Jordan, curated by the poet Elisa Biagini.