Born 1984, Oakland, CA
MFA, University of California, San Diego, CA, 2012
BFA, California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA, 2006
Lives and works in Oakland, CA
Solo Exhibitions
2024
The New Eagle Creek Saloon, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
2023
The New Eagle Creek Saloon, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA; STABLE DC, Washington D.C.
Sadie Barnette: Family Business, San José Museum of Art and Institute of Arts and Sciences, University of Santa Cruz, CA
2022
Sadie Barnette: Bay Area Walls, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, CA
The New Eagle Creek Saloon, The Kitchen, New York, NY
2021
Inheritance, Sadie Barnette, Jessica Silverman, San Francisco
Sadie Barnette: Legacy and Legend, Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College and Pitzer College Art Galleries, Pitzer College, Pomona, CA
2020
More Alive, Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Gentle People, Jessica Silverman, Art Basel OVR (online)
2019
The New Eagle Creek Saloon, The Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA
The New Eagle Creek Saloon, The Lab, San Francisco, CA
PHONE HOME, Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, CA
2018
Black Sky, Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Dear 1968,…, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, CA
2017
Dear 1968,…, Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery, Haverford College, Pennsylvania
Compland, Fort Gansevoort, New York, NY
Dear 1968,…, Manetti Shrem Museum, University of California at Davis
Do Not Destroy, Baxter St at CCNY, New York, NY
2016
FROM HERE, Jenkins-Johnson Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Superfecta, Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2013
Composed and Performed, Ever Gold Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2012
Everything, All The Time, Always, Double Break Gallery, San Diego, CA
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024
Surveillance and Countersurveillance: Control, Privacy, Agency, Wende Museum, Culver City, CA [forthcoming]
Movements Toward Freedom, Museum of Contemporary Art Denver, CO [forthcoming]
Scrawlspace, Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation, New York, NY [forthcoming]
Seeing through Stone, San José Museum of Art, CA
2023
Don’t Forget to Call Your Mother, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Crafting Radicality: Bay Area Artists from the Svane Gift, de Young Museum, San Francisco, CA
A Growing Season, Jessica Silverman, San Francisco, CA
Inheritance, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
What Has Been and What Could Be: The BAMPFA Collection, Berkeley Art Museum & Pacific Film Archive, CA
Emancipation: the Unfinished Project of Liberation, Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, TX; Newcomb Art Museum at Tulane, New Orleans, LA; William College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA; and Telfair Museums, Savannah, GA.
Black Venus, Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco, CA
Black American Portraits, Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, Atlanta, GA
Resting Our Eyes, Institute of Contemporary Art, San Francisco, CA
A love letter to LA, Superposition, Los Angeles, CA
2022
A Point Stretched: Views on Time, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA
Modern Women Modern Vision: Photography from the Bank of America Collection, Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, CA
ROCK MY SOUL II, Futura Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden
California Biennial: Pacific Gold, Orange County Museum of Art, Costa Mesa, CA
Free as they want to be: Artists Committed to Memory, National Underground Railroad Freedom Center, Cincinnati, OH [forthcoming]
Color Code, McEvoy Foundation for the Arts, San Francisco, CA
Angela Davis: Seize The Time, Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, CA
Hella Feminist, Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, CA
Past is Prologue: History in Contemporary Art, Addison Gallery of American Art at Phillips Academy, Andover, MA
Young, Black and Gifted: The Lumpkin-Boccuzzi Family Collection of Contemporary Art, Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, Davis, CA
Jessica Silverman Presents, The Orange Advisory, Minneapolis, MN
Black Venus, Fotografiska, New York, NY
This Tender, Fragile Thing, The School, Kinderhook, NY
Nations by Artists, Art Museum at the University of Toronto
Fill the Void, Dreamsong, Minneapolis, MN
Transparency & Opacity, St. Joseph’s Art Foundation, San Francisco, CA
2021
Black American Portraits, LACMA, Los Angeles, CA
Off the Record, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
Staying Power, Monument Lab, Philadelphia, PA
We Are Here, Jessica Silverman, San Francisco, CA
Sanctuary: Recent Acquisitions to the Permanent Collection, California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Angela Davis: Seize The Time, Zimmerli Art Museum, Rutgers University, NJ
2020
One Million Roses for Angela Davis, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Albertineum Dresden, Germany
Barring Freedom, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA
Collective Constellation: Selections from The Eileen Harris Norton Collection, Art + Practice, Los Angeles, CA
Young, Gifted and Black: The Lumpkin-Boccuzzi Family Collection of Contemporary Art, Lehman College Art Gallery, Bronx, NY
2019
In Plain Sight, Henry Art Center, Seattle, WA
Contextual Proportions, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San Francisco, CA
To Reflect Us, Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Presence, Fullerton College Art Gallery, Fullerton, CA
California Artists in the Marciano Collection, Marciano Art Foundation, Los Angeles, CA
Young, Gifted, and Black: The Lumpkin-Boccuzzi Family Collection, Concordia College, New York, NY
Solidarity Struggle Victory, Southern Exposure, San Francisco, CA
Plumb Line: Charles White and the Contemporary, California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Gold Standard, Evergold [Projects], San Francisco, CA
Lost and Found in America, Florida Museum of Photographic Arts, Tampa, FL
2018
A Recounting: Data, Disinformation & Black Experience, Guerrero Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Redacted: Art for Human Rights, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, CA
Bay Area Now 8, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco, CA
Pussy, King of The Pirates, Maccarone Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Emory Douglas: Bold Visual Language, LACE, Los Angeles, CA
Rise Up! Social Justice in Art from the Collection of J. Michael Bewley, San Jose Museum of Art, CA
Way Bay 2, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, CA
Reclamation! Pan-African Works from the Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection, Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke, VA
All Power: Visual Legacies of the Black Panther Party, Photographic Center Northwest, Seattle, WA
Manifesto: A Moderate Proposal, Pitzer College Art Galleries, CA
Black is a Color, Antenna Gallery, New Orleans, LA
2017
Sonic Rebellion: Music as Resistance, MOCAD, Detroit, MI
Evidentiary Realism, NOME Gallery, Berlin, Germany
Black is a Color, Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Face to Face: Los Angeles Collects Portraiture, California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Over The Rainbow, Praz-Delavallade, Los Angeles, CA
Museum of Capitalism, Oakland, CA
Excerpt, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
A New Look, Monique Meloche, Chicago, IL
Now More Than Always, Gildar Gallery, Denver, CO
March Madness, Fort Gansevoort, New York NY
A Mere Sum of Parts, Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles CA
Humanity Today, Jenkins Johnson Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2016
All Power to the People: Black Panthers at 50, Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, CA
Taking Place: Selections from the Permanent Collection, California African American Museum, Los Angeles, CA
March Madness, Fort Gansevoort, New York, NY
Life During Wartime, Diane Rosentein Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
After Pop Life, curated by Glen Helfand, Minnesota Street Project, San Francisco, CA
Southland, Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2015
Young, Gifted and Black, curated by Hank Willis Thomas, Goodman Gallery, Johannesburg, South Africa
Everything, Everyday, Artist in Residence exhibition, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
That’s On Me, curated by Lauren Halsey, Paris Blues, New York, NY
American Survey Pt. 1, Papillion, Los Angeles, CA
Incognito 2015, Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, CA
The Silence of Ordinary Things, The Mistake Room, Los Angeles, CA
2014
At Sixes and Sevens, Pieter, Los Angeles, CA
Incognito, Santa Monica Museum of Art, Santa Monica, CA
5 Year Anniversary, Ever Gold Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2013
Present Tense Future Perfect, curated by Teka Selman, Carol Jazzar Gallery, Miami, FL
Connection, Reflection, curated by Nikki Pressley, Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
Art Intersections, Smithsonian Asian-Latino “pop-up” museum, Washington DC
The Matter at Hand, Dagny + Barstow, New York, NY
2012
FORE, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
Sueños Libres, West Coast Soñazos, Self Help Graphics, East Los Angeles, CA
Grants and Fellowships
2021
Artist Fellow at UC Berkeley’s Black Studies Collaboratory
2020
Herb Alpert/Ucross Residency Prize
2019
Headlands Center for the Arts, Marin Headlands, CA, Artist in Residence
SECA Award Finalist
2018
Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, ME
The Carmago Foundation, Cassis, France, Artist in Residence
2017
Artadia Grant, San Francisco awardee
Art Matters Grant awardee
2016
Artist in Residence, The Hermitage, Englewood, FL
2015
Artist in Residence, Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
2012
Vermont Studio Center residency fellowship, Johnson, VT
Catalogs and Publications
2021
Barnette, Sadie. Sadie Barnette: Legacy and Legend, edited by Ciara Ennis and Rebeca McGrew, Benton Museum of Art at Pomona College, 2021.
2020
Drew, Kimberly and Wortham, Jenna (ed). Black Futures. Penguin Random House, 2020.
Momin, Shamim M. (ed). In Plain Sight. Henry Art Museum, 2020.
Reinhardt, Kathleen (ed). 1 Million Roses for Angela Davis. Mousse Publishing, 2020.
Sargent, Antwaun (ed). Young, Gifted and Black: A New Generation of Artists. Distributed Art Publishers, 2020.
2019
Beegan, Gerry and Gustafson, Donna (ed). Angela Davis — Seize the Time. Hirmer an University of Chicago Press, 2019.
Selected bibliography
2o24
Jaeger, William. “Exhibit on emancipation at Williams College powerful, necessary.” Times Union. April 29, 2024.
Giuliano, Charles. “Visual Arts Review: Various Views of “Emancipation.”” The Arts Fuse. March 12, 2024.
“’Emancipation’ — Contemporary Artists’ Visions of Emancipation 160 Years in the Making.” The Grelock Glass. January 26, 2024.
2023
Wilson, Emily. “’Resting Our Eyes’ taps the power of Black women in repose.” 48hills. June 20, 2023.
Pintro, Cassandra. “In Washington, DC, Artist Sadie Barnette Transforms Her Father’s Former Gay Bar Into an Immersive Installation.” Vogue. June 1, 2023.
Batts, Jamal. “Libations and Spirits for The New Eagle Creek Saloon.” SFMOMA. May 2023.
Gentile, Dan. “Oakland artist re-creates San Francisco’s first Black-owned gay bar inside SFMOMA.” SF Gate. May 6, 2023.
Jones, Okla. “Artist Sadie Barnette Honors Her Father’s Legacy With ‘The New Eagle Creek Saloon’.” Essence. April 28, 2023.
Kaufman, David. “Artwork Inspired by an Abraham Lincoln Monument Is Reimagined.” The New York Times. April 27, 2023
Roth, David M. “The Family Saga of Sadie Barnette.” Squarecylinder. April 5, 2023.
Heath, Shaquille. “The Lexicon of Sadie Barnette.” Juxtapoz. Spring 2023.
Wally, Maxine. “Resting Our Eyes Exhibition Considers the Radical Act of Leisure for Black Women.” W Magazine. January 19, 2023.
Aptheker, Bettina. Communists in Closets: Queering the History 1930s-1990s. Routledge, New York, NY, pg. 228-231
2022
Finley, Cheryl, & Willis, Deborah, Free as they want to be: Artists Committed to Memory. Damiani, Bologna, Italy, pg. 36-38
Lloyd-Smith, Harriet. “New York show explores the legacy of Black women in visual culture.” Wallpaper. May 23, 2022.
Brod, Amelia. “On the importance of telling the story that you know best.” The Creative Independent. May 12, 2022.
“The Keepers: Sadie Barnette and Ja’Tovia Garry in Conversation with Erin Christovale.” Mousse. April 29, 2022.
Kamp, Justin. “Sadie Barnette’s ‘The New Eagle Creek Saloon’ Commemorates Black Queer Life.” Observer. March 3, 2022.
Jung, Alex E. “Afterglow in Gallery Land.” Vulture. February 26, 2022
Smith, David. “’Brave people stepping up to the plate’: remembering the Black Panthers through art.” The Guardian. February 16, 2022.
Fateman, Johanna. “Sadie Barnette.” 4 Columns. February 11, 2022.
Smith, Melissa. “Sadie Barnete Has Made Art From the Files the FBI Kept on Her Father. Now She Has Recreated His Path-Breaking Nightclub.” Artnet news. February 9, 2022.
Packard, Cassie. “Your Concise New York Art Guide for February 2022.” Hyperallergic. January 31, 2022.
Pau, Kelly. “Sadie Barnette + madison moore Recreate the Magic of Queer Nightlife.” Cool Hunting. January 25, 2022.
Zeiger, Mimi. “Interview: Sadie Barnette on Swagger, Surveillance, and Sofas from the Future.” PIN-UP. January 17, 2022.
Williams, Luke. “The Necessary Art of Lesiure.” Hyperallergic. January 4, 2022.
2021
Furman, Anna. “A Daughter’s Reclamation of Her Father’s Past.” The New York Times Style Magazine. December 31, 2021.
Sachs, Danica. “Critics’ Pick: Sadie Barnette.” Artforum. December 2021.
Steer, Emily. “5 Minutes With – Sadie Barnette: ‘I Would Kill a Person for That Painting.'” Elephant. November 29, 2021.
Bravo, Tony. “Bay Area Holiday art 2021: An Amibitous close to a comeback year for museums, galleries, and more.” San Francisco Chronicle Datebook. November 11, 2021.
Harris, Lauren. “Q&A: Dr. Ashley James on ‘Off the Record’ and the limits of documentation.” Columbia Journalism Review. September 24, 2021.
Criscitiello, Alex. “ANGELA DAVIS – SEIZE THE TIME Now Open at Zimmerli Art Museum.” Broadway World. September 17, 2021.
Blair, Ian F. “’You can’t surveil our souls’: Sadie Barnette reclaims her dad’s story from the FBI.” Los Angeles Times. August 18, 2021.
Thomas, Alexandra M. “Off the Record Confronts Our Understanding of Objectivity.” Hyperallergic. April 20, 2021.
Dafoe, Taylor. “What If an Artist Were Your History Teacher? A New Photography Exhibition at the Guggenheim Questions How We Depict the Past.” Artnet. April 19, 2021.
Marine, Brooke. “Guggenheim Curator Ashley James Lives for ‘Unanticipated Epiphanies’.” W Magazine. April 2, 2021
Terrebonne, Jacqueline. “Monumental Achievement.” Galerie. June 17, 2021.
McShane, Julianne. “Guggenheim curator Ashley James, sees ‘a certain kind of possibility in new role.” NBC News. June 24, 2021.
2020
Drew, Kimberly and Wortham, Jenna (ed.). Black Futures. Penguin Random House, 2020.
Sargent, Antwaun (ed.). Young, Gifted and Black: A New Generation of Artists. Distributed Art Publishers, 2020.
“Angela Davis — Seize the Time,” Zimmerli Art Museum (Online), November, 2020.
Selected Collections
Addison Gallery of American Art, Andover, MA
Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, TX
Benton Museum of Art, Pomona College, CA
Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, CA
Blanton Museum of Art at UT Austin, TX
Brooklyn Museum, New York, NY
California African American Museum (CAAM), Los Angeles, CA
Cornell Fine Arts Museum at Rollins College, Winter Park, FL
Haverford College, Haverford, PA
JP Morgan Chase Collection
Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), Los Angeles, CA
Marciano Foundation, Los Angeles, CA
The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, CA
Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, CA
Pérez Art Museum Miami, Miami, FL
Princeton Museum of Art, Princeton, NJ
The Rollins Museum of Art, Winter Park, FL
San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, NY
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, MN
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY