In Vivo, oil on canvas, 33.5 x 40 in. 2023
Sarah Elizabeth Barnett is an artist and educator based in eastern Washington. Her oil paintings investigate the body as a site of instability suspended between biological materiality, technological mediation, and metaphysical uncertainty. Drawing from medical imaging, machine vision, and speculative science, her work explores the shifting relationship between observer and observed, questioning how contemporary technologies reshape perception and understanding. Through distorted corporeal forms and fragmented spaces, Barnett examines moments where vision and identity become uncertain, and where the boundaries between body, consciousness, and machine begin to dissolve.
Barnett received her MFA from Washington State University and has exhibited nationally in museums and galleries. Her work has been supported by the Artist Trust Fellowship and featured in publications including Manifest's International Painting Annual, Friend of the Artist, and Divide Magazine. She currently teaches at Washington State University and Big Bend Community College.
Among the Impersonal, oil on canvas, 48 x 36 in. 2024
Cage for a Ghost, oil on canvas, 38 x 36 in. 2025
Latent Permutations, oil on panel, 36 x 48 in. 2023
Monitor, oil on canvas, 40 x 30 in. 2025
Protection, oil on canvas, 40 x 30 in. 2020
Spectacle of Being, oil on canvas, 50 x 60 in. 2026