Dani McKenzie’s practice stems from an interest in street photography, 21st century notions of privacy, and the intrigues of everyday life. Working from personal photographs and observations, her paintings examine the ways we identify with strangers, both as one who is seeing, and one who is being seen. Whilst creating an impression of second-hand people watching, the paintings also reflect McKenzie’s own psychological projections onto the moments she depicts, blurring a boundary not only between the private and the public, but truth and fiction, surface and image. Neither true or false, the work operates in a kind of middle zone, where illusion bumps up against reality and you begin to notice the paint. 

Dani McKenzie is an Australian born artist, who is currently based in Naarm/Melbourne. Since graduating from the MFA program at the National Art School in Sydney (2016), McKenzie has held several solo exhibitions including recent shows: Room With a View, Long Story Short Gallery, Los Angeles CA (2023); Evening’s Empire, MARS Gallery, Melbourne (2022), and Close to Home, Olsen Gallery, Sydney (2022). She has participated in several group exhibitions including Romancing the Streetscape at Town Hall Gallery in Melbourne (2023), and National Art-Part One: a touring exhibition of prominent alumni from the National Art School over 50 years (2018-2021). In 2019, McKenzie was awarded the Bayside Acquisitive Art Prize in Melbourne, and in 2017 she was a recipient of the Onslow Storrier Residency at la Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris.