Sadie Barnette’s practice is unconfined to a particular medium and often uses a mix of material approaches in tandem or juxtaposition, as if to complicate or undo each other. Her drawings, photographs, and installations collapse time and expand historical possibilities by syncing her own family photos, motifs of outdated technologies, text, mundane cityscapes, and glittering abstractions into a visual vocabulary.

Barnette was born and raised in Oakland and holds a BFA from CalArts and an MFA from UC San Diego. She has presented solo exhibitions at venues such as The Kitchen in New York City, ICA Los Angeles, SFMoMA, and Walker Art Center. Her work is in permanent collections at institutions such as the Brooklyn Museum, Guggenheim, LACMA, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Oakland Museum, Studio Museum in Harlem, The Walker, and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Barnette is the recipient of grants and residencies including the Studio Museum in Harlem, Artadia, Art Matters, Eureka Fellowship, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and the Headlands Center for the Arts, and was an Artist Fellow at UC Berkeley’s Black Studies Collaboratory. A permanent, site-specific installation at the Los Angeles International Airport is forthcoming.