Jessica Silverman is thrilled to present “Gentle People,” Sadie Barnette’s first solo show for Art Basel, featuring the artist’s new large scale “FBI Drawings,” her “Text Compositions,” and a curated selection of photographs.

Barnette’s work reveals quintessential American truths through exploration of her own family history. In dialogue with figures as diverse as Toni Morrison, Angela Davis, On Kawara, Felix González-Torres, Outkast and Prince, Barnette’s photographs and drawings make a unique contribution to California social history and global discourses about race, sex and love.

Sadie Barnette (b. 1984, Oakland, CA) has a BFA from CalArts and an MFA from University of California, San Diego. She has been awarded grants and residencies by the Studio Museum in Harlem, Artadia, Art Matters, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, the Headlands Center for the Arts, and the Carmago Foundation in France. She has enjoyed solo shows in the following public institutions: ICA Los Angeles, The Lab and the Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco; MCA San Diego, CA; Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery, Haverford College, PA; and the Manetti Shrem Museum, UC Davis. Her work is in the permanent collections of: the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA); Brooklyn Museum, NY; Pérez Art Museum, Miami; Guggenheim Museum, NY; JP Morgan Chase Collection; Blanton Museum at UT Austin, TX; Cornell Fine Arts Museum; and the Berkeley Art Museum, CA. Barnette lives and works in Oakland, CA.