Sadie Barnette
Superfecta
Charlie James Gallery
969 Chung King Road, Los Angeles, CA 90012
January 9 – February 20, 2016
Reception: January 9, 6-9 pm

January 9, Charlie James Gallery opens Superfecta, an exhibition of new drawing and photography by Sadie Barnette. Barnette, revisiting memories of accompanying her father to Inglewood’s Hollywood Park Racetrack on payday as his good luck charm, examines the racetrack for its atmosphere—thick with escapism, fantasy, and chance—and for its use of specialized language, codes, and systems. In one series of drawings, Barnette uses newsprint racetrack forms and other related ephemera as ground, applying graphite in large areas to creating numbers in the negative space, and isolating imagery from the original materials—American flags, stacks of dollars, coins, and jumping horses. In another series, Barnette renders the names of racehorses in graphite, having chosen horses by their names for her father as a child. The drawings are accompanied by a photograph of a horse and rider in Compton, taken outside of the artist’s house during a family party and presented as evidence of the city’s little known equestrian culture.

Sadie Barnette, Untitled, 2015. Graphite on newsprint, 8 x 10 inches. Courtesy of Charlie James Gallery.

Sadie Barnette, Untitled, 2015. Graphite on newsprint, 8 x 10 inches. Courtesy of Charlie James Gallery.


 
Sadie Barnette, Untitled, 2015. Graphite on newsprint, 8 x 10 inches. Courtesy of Charlie James Gallery.

Sadie Barnette, Untitled, 2015. Graphite on newsprint, 8 x 10 inches. Courtesy of Charlie James Gallery.


 
Sadie Barnette, Untitled, 2015. Graphite on newsprint, 8 x 10 inches. Courtesy of Charlie James Gallery.

Sadie Barnette, Untitled, 2015. Graphite on newsprint, 8 x 10 inches. Courtesy of Charlie James Gallery.


 
Sadie Barnette, Untitled, 2015. Graphite on newsprint, 8 x 10 inches. Courtesy of Charlie James Gallery.

Sadie Barnette, Untitled, 2015. Graphite on newsprint, 8 x 10 inches. Courtesy of Charlie James Gallery.