Summer 2021 Quarterly #218

I doubt I’m the only one who has ever daydreamed their life into some sort of movie scene just before the ending credits are run. I think it’s natural for a “a dreamer,” a category in which I most certainly belong, to imagine oneself in a story of importance, or at least of narrative significance.  I think of this in being so drawn to the cinematic romanticism in Danielle McKinney’s paintings. As a viewer, you are able to recognize yourself in her scenes. A record player is subtly heard in the distance, cigarette smoke lingering over you, nothing too loud in this solitary tableau. These paintings slowly stroll through the frame, ever so quietly. That she called her recent solo show Saw My Shadow, is a nod to both existence and individuality, as well as the overwhelming sense that the female characters share the same sounds, drifting into the dream with the viewer. A book critic rightly assessed that Hemingway "impersonated simplicity," and that, too, perfectly reflects McKinney. Fulsome with details and profound color use, these works also impersonate simplicity, revealing universal moments of respite, veins of religion and the expression of what it is we see in ourselves—importantly, our ideal selves. 

This is a painterly issue and, as it turns out, quite cinematic. Summer 2021 Quarterly features Danielle Mckinney, Jenna Gribbon, Cristina BanBan, MADSAKI, Phlegm, Khari Turner, Lucia Hierro, Hilary Pecis, Ludovic Nkoth, Vasantha Yogananthan, Wing Yau, Nicole McLaughlin, Maud Madsen, Nathaniel Russell, Nam June Paik, Beyond the Streets on Paper and more.