Sadie Barnette

My Father’s FBI File, Project 4

Sadie Barnette (b. 1984, U.S.) is a California artist who investigates the unexpected locations of identity construction, family histories, subcultural coding, celebration, and excess. Barnette creates photographs, detailed drawings, and large scale installations, engaging in minimalism, text, found objects, and the personal as political for poetry and abstraction in urban life.

Barnette’s work has been exhibited throughout the United States and internationally at venues including The Studio Museum, Harlem (where she was Artist in Residence, 2014-2015); the Oakland Museum of California, 2016; The Mistake Room, 2015, and Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles, 2016; and Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, 2015. Barnette is the recipient of Art Matters and Artadia awards, 2017, and has work featured in the permanent collections of museums such as The Pérez Art Museum, Miami; the California African American Museum, Los Angeles; and The Studio Museum, Harlem. She lives and works in California and is represented by Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles. Barnette earned her BFA from CalArts and her MFA from the University of California, San Diego.

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