Jessica Silverman is pleased to present Sadie Barnette‘s second solo exhibition with the gallery titled “28” as it is the 28th solo exhibition of the artist’s career to date. On view September 10 through October 24, the show features new colored-pencil drawings and a new installation in ash and poplar wood that asks questions about perspective and legibility. Throughout the show, Barnette explores the history of abstraction, the social life of language, and the unconscious insights of the mundane. The work in “28” is as intellectual as it is embodied, revealing the significance of a single mark, and the multiple meanings of an ordinary phrase.

CalArts at The Reef is a new extension of the Institute, giving CalArts students and recent graduates a dedicated presence in Downtown Los Angeles. Housed within The Reef, an 860,000 square-foot building and creative hub at the corner of Broadway and Washington, CalArts’ presence significantly expands its footprint in LA proper. The development of this space was made possible through the generous support of an anonymous individual donor.

Sadie Barnette is an artist working in a wide variety of visual outputs, often all at once. She was born and raised in Oakland, California and holds a BFA from CalArts and an MFA from UC San Diego. Her work has been equally influenced by the history of conceptual art, Bay Area rappers, anxiety, car culture, and Hello Kitty. Barnette has presented solo exhibitions at venues such as The Kitchen in New York City, ICA Los Angeles, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Walker Art Center, MCA San Diego, The San José Museum of Art, and The Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco. Her work is in permanent collections including Brooklyn Museum, Guggenheim, LACMA, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Oakland Museum, Studio Museum in Harlem, The Walker, and the Whitney Museum of American Art. Barnette has been an artist-in-residence at the Studio Museum in Harlem, Headlands Center for the Arts, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, and UC Berkeley’s Black Studies Collaboratory, and has been awarded grants from the United States Artists Fellowship, Artadia, Art Matters, and Fleishhacker Foundation. She is a 2026 Creative Capital Fellow. Gallery representation is Jessica Silverman in San Francisco.

CalArts at The Reef is a new extension of the Institute, giving CalArts students and recent graduates a dedicated presence in Downtown Los Angeles. Housed within The Reef, an 860,000 square-foot building and creative hub at the corner of Broadway and Washington, CalArts’ presence significantly expands its footprint in LA proper. The development of this space was made possible through the generous support of an anonymous individual donor.