Sadie Barnette

Sadie Barnette is a multimedia artist who uses photography, text-based drawing, sculpture, and installation to explore family narratives and collective possibilities across space and time. Incorporating bright colors and sparkling rhinestones, Barnette elevates the mundane to emphasize the magic of everyday objects—from birthday cakes to neighborhood signs. Barnette (b. 1984, Oakland, CA) has a BFA from CalArts and an MFA from University of California, San Diego. Her work is in the permanent collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; Whitney Museum of American Art, NY; LACMA, CA; de Young, San Francisco; Brooklyn Museum; Pérez Art Museum, Miami; Guggenheim Museum, NY; Art Institute of Chicago, IL; Blanton Museum at UT Austin, TX; San José Museum of Art, CA; Oakland Museum of California; Berkeley Art Museum; Studio Museum in Harlem, NY; and Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, among others. Barnette has enjoyed solo exhibitions at the Walker Art Center; SFMOMA, CA; San José Museum of Art; The Kitchen, New York; Pomona College, Los Angeles and Pitzer College Art Galleries, Los Angeles; ICA Los Angeles; The Lab, San Francisco; Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco; Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery, Haverford College, PA; and Manetti Shrem Museum, UC Davis. Recent commissions include Bay Area Walls at SFMOMA, a large-scale photomural at California African American Museum on view through October 2027, and a permanent, site-specific installation at the Los Angeles International Airport is forthcoming in 2027. Barnette lives and works in Oakland, CA and is represented by Jessica Silverman Gallery in San Francisco.