Updated April 2, 2026, 7:58 a.m. CT
- The Norton Museum of Art’s Recognition of Women in Art series has provided solo exhibition platforms for mid-career women artists since 2011.
- The 10th installment features painter Danielle Mckinney’s “Shelter,” which explores themes of interiority and comfort.
- A retrospective exhibition, open through Sept. 27, showcases works from the nine previous RAW artists.
- The Norton has significantly increased its representation of women artists, featuring them in 57% of exhibitions between 2020 and 2025.
When the Norton Museum of Art debuted its Recognition of Art by Women series in 2011, few opportunities existed for mid-career women artists to present a solo exhibition on a large scale.
The Norton helped to change that, and for 15 years has continued to provide platforms for women sculptors and painters.
“We kind of set the stage,” said Arden Sherman, the Norton’s Glenn W. and Cornelia T. Bailey senior curator of contemporary art.
That impact has happened outside of — and within — the museum, she said, as the Norton moves to bring in more solo exhibitions by women.
The 10th installment in the series, painter Danielle Mckinney’s “Shelter,” is open through Oct. 4 at the museum, 1450 S. Dixie Highway, West Palm Beach. The exhibition is presented alongside a RAW retrospective — open through Sept. 27 — that spans the previous nine exhibitions and includes works from past RAW artists, including Jenny Saville, who had the inaugural RAW show, and Rose B. Simpson, whose show was the most recent in 2024.
The respected Burns Halperin Report on art trends found that fewer than 15% of works in exhibitions at major museums were created by women between 2008 and 2020. During that same period, the Norton averaged 44%, the museum said. Between 2020 and 2025, the percentage increased, with women artists featured in 57% of Norton exhibitions.
“So we’re putting our money where our mouth is in our efforts towards putting women first,” Sherman said.
The series is central to the museum’s mission, Ghislain d’Humières, the Norton’s Kenneth C. Griffin director and CEO, said in a news release.
“Each exhibition offers an opportunity to showcase the work of exceptional women artists and to highlight their lasting impact on the field,” he said. “Danielle Mckinney’s exhibition continues this legacy, reflecting the power and diversity of artistic voices that define the RAW program.”
Danielle Mckinney shares vision of ‘Shelter’
Mckinney is “a really rare talent,” said J. Rachel Gustafson, the Norton’s chief curatorial officer, who curated McKinney’s exhibition.
“At the end of the day, I think the biggest subject matter is interiority, and that’s in two measures: It’s the interiority of the spaces we create around us — where we feel comfort, where we feel shelter in our homes, in our quiet domestic spaces — and then the interiority of our mind,” Gustafson said of the show.
Mckinney’s exhibition begins in a space with low light, where the paintings come to life under spotlights. The lighting gradually increases through the gallery as visitors move between sections divided into five themes: Glow, Witness, Nocturne, Exhale and Epilogue. The paintings are intimate and meant to be viewed closely, Gustafson said.
Mckinney worked as a photographer for 20 years, and references source material from other well-known works of art in her own creations, along with magazines and photographs, Gustafson said.
When beginning a painting, Mckinney said, she begins by creating a soft interior space with low light to provide a sense of comfort. She then builds on the setting by placing her subject into that context.
In Mckinney’s painting “Sandman,” a woman rests on a couch under Pablo Picasso’s iconic “Le Rêve” work. The woman is nude, but part of the lower half of her body is covered by a large vase of yellow flowers. Mckinney said she left the painting her studio for days while she tried to decide which painting would be depicted hanging above the woman.
“And then I thought about it and I was like, Let’s just not take this too serious,” she said during a recent preview of her exhibition.
She said she wanted a red painting by a master artist — and the Picasso fit the bill: “I put that painting in,” she said.
The beautiful thing about art, she said, is that people bring their own narrative to a piece. Picasso’s notorious reputation with women may lead viewers to wonder why she would choose a piece by him to hang over the Black woman portrayed in “Sandman,” Mckinney said.
“It’s my admiration for history but also a chance for you to enter a space at your own meaning,” she said.
The exhibition ends with the theme Epilogue, comprising four of Mckinney’s recently completed watercolors, a new medium for her. Two of the watercolors in particular — silhouettes in joyful poses using colors that give the appearance of celestial bodies — reflect Mckinney’s new direction, she said.
“I feel like they embody the Black body, and they also embody, just without you knowing or seeing all of the expressions and the details, you don’t need that. Her body and her skin, the greens, they’re like a galaxy,” she said. “She totally exists in just gesture alone.”
RAW retrospective highlights contributions from women artists
The pieces in the “Recognition of Art by Women: In Retrospect” exhibition, while encompassing different styles, tell a cohesive story of the variety of artwork presented by the Norton during the series’ decade and a half of life.
In addition to Saville and Simpson, other artists represented include Sylvia Plimack Mangold, Phyllida Barlow, Krista Kristalova and Njideka Akunyili Crosby. Also displayed in the exhibition are works by Svenja Deininger, Nina Chanel Abney and María Berrío.
Media include watercolor, paintings and sculptures. Large-scale, brightly colored paintings by Abney, whose RAW exhibition was in 2019, seem to watch over the works of Swedish sculptor Kristalova, 2014, aside Plimack Mangold’s immaculately detailed watercolors.
Saville’s “Rosetta II” welcomes visitors to the space: a towering depiction of a blind woman whose eyes lack focus, but who is brought to life in broad brushstrokes through Saville’s skilled hand. It’s a logical place to begin, with Saville’s exhibition marking the first in the series.
RAW is the first U.S. museum presentation in the U.S. for many of the artists featured in the Norton’s series, Sherman said.
That is the case for Saville, who went from her 27-piece Norton exhibition to great acclaim and large shows at museums globally.
When Norton patrons Alan Davis and Mary Lou Dauray funded RAW, the intent was to celebrate women artists and address the distinct differences in how women’s art was presented in major showings, the museum said.
For artists like the Nigerian American Akunyili Crosby, that opportunity through RAW was, perhaps, once in a lifetime.
“The Norton has a special place in my heart,” she said. It’s been 10 years since her show brought together 16 of her pieces — the only time that many of her works were gathered in one exhibition, she said.
“It’s a good chance as an artist to gauge your progress and what you’ve done, and to look back at the thing you did before and to ask yourself, ‘Does it hold up?'” she said.
The Norton gave her a special gift, Akunyili Crosby said. There are conversations that happen between her pieces, and those moments are difficult for people to enjoy when only one or two works are viewed at a time, she said.
“When I think of the work, I’m thinking of the contained piece,” she said. “I’m also thinking of this larger narrative, because in my mind, I think of each work as a chapter in a longer story. It’s great to have a chance to see multiple chapters at once.”
The Norton’s efforts continue to have a ripple effect in the art world, Sherman said.
“It’s a really exciting moment, I think, in exhibitions, where people just want to see women makers today —they want to go to museums to see women makers,” she said.
If you go
The Danielle Mckinney exhibition is open through Oct. 4, and the RAW retrospective is available to view through Sept. 27. Both are open to the public during regular museum hours at the Norton Museum of Art, 1450 S. Dixie Highway, West Palm Beach. For more information, including ticket prices, go to Norton.org.
Kristina Webb is a reporter for Palm Beach Daily News, part of the USA TODAY Florida Network. You can reach her at kwebb@pbdailynews.com. Subscribe today to support our journalism.
