Chase Gallery

The mission of the Chase Gallery is to exhibit works that engage the public, bring people to a new outlook on contemporary issues, feature innovative artwork, and provide space for people of all backgrounds to share their perspective through art. The gallery showcases rotating exhibitions throughout the year, championing local Spokane artists and their work.

The Chase Gallery, located inside Spokane’s City Hall, is currently open for visitors whenever City Hall is open to the public and for First Friday receptions. Stop by and see the gallery Monday – Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (gallery access may be limited Tuesday mornings) and the First Friday of each month from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m.

SIMULA: the Art of Sarah Barnett

SEPTEMBER’S FIRST FRIDAY OPENING RECEPTION: SEPTEMBER  5 – 5:00 – 7:30 PM

OCTOBER’S FIRST FRIDAY RECEPTION: OCTOBER 3 – 5:00 – 7:30 PM

(Enter City Hall through the sliding doors on N. Post St.. Chase Gallery is on the lower level) This exhibition runs for 2 months.

City Hall, lower level
808 W. Spokane Falls Blvd.
Dates: July 4 – August 29, 2025.
Open and free to the Public. Hours 9am – 5pm, M-F

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Sarah Elizabeth Barnett is a painter from North Texas currently based in Pullman, Washington. She earned her MFA from Washington State University in 2022 and is a recipient of the 2023 Artist Trust Fellowship Award. Creating highly representational yet distorted oil paintings, Sarah explores themes of mortality, self-preservation, the human body and technology. She has exhibited nationally and internationally and is currently represented by Gallery110 in Seattle. Alongside her studio work, Sarah presently teaches at Washington State University and Big Bend Community College, privately mentors young artists, and creates murals in her community.

EXHIBITION STATEMENT

In Simula, I present a collection of paintings that explore the uncanny space between the organic and the synthetic—where the human body, scientific progress, and spiritual inquiry intersect. Including recent and earlier works, this exhibition reflects my ongoing investigation into the evolving relationship between mortality, technology, and identity.

Borrowing its title from the notion of simulation, Simula questions what happens when reality begins to dissolve into abstraction—when life is mediated through machines, surveillance systems, and digital replicas. Influenced by transhumanist ideology, anatomy, medical imaging, and science fiction, these paintings examine how far we are willing to go to transcend our biological limitations—and at what cost.

The works include references to contemporary scientific institutions like CERN, depictions of surveillance cameras, surgical procedures, and cosmic phenomena like black holes—all filtered through a deliberately intimate, painterly lens. Despite the technological imagery, each piece remains deeply rooted in the human experience, expressed through the softness of oil, the tactile presence of the body, and the emotional ambiguity of the unknown.

In creating these pieces, I ask: Why do we strive to change our physical nature? Are our efforts to preserve, extend, or reinvent life acts of progress—or symptoms of a deeper fear? Through distortion, realism, and surreal tension, Simula invites viewers to consider what it means to be human in a time when the line between real and artificial is rapidly fading.