Danielle Orchard

With wry nods to art historical forebears such as Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, Danielle Orchard makes luscious, angular portraits of women caught up in romantic and mundane rituals. The Indiana-born, Brooklyn-based artist situates her subjects in leisurely tableaux—they’re often in states of undress, with cigarettes and drinks nearby. Her subjects lounge in the bath, arm-wrestle over coffee, or sip beers on a tennis court; most often, they are merely in repose, content in each other’s company. Orchard’s narrative scenes have earned her gallery exhibitions in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Copenhagen, and the artist helps run Underdonk, an artist-led space in Brooklyn. The languid torpor of Orchard’s compositions unfolds into deep explorations of women’s relationships with one another and the art historical canon at large.