Written by: savelittlelakevalley

Category: Uncategorized

Published: June 13, 2019

Oberg’s Drawings Part of “Emerging Artists of Mendocino County” Exhibit

Throughout this year, Ukiah native and resident Adrianna Oberg has crafted a number of posters that brilliantly convey the spirit, messages, and tactics of the resistance to the CalTrans Willits Bypass.  Some of Adrianna’s most recent work — including her “Rise to Action” poster above, shirts that bear messages like “Life is Priceless” and “We Made The Machine; The Machine Didn’t Make Us!” and a t-shirt supporting the California prisoners’ hunger strike earlier this year — are now on display at the Mendocino College Art Gallery.

Mendocino College instructor Alyssum Wier, who teaches courses in art gallery management and art & craft marketing, says that Oberg’s work. “caught [her] eye during the Save Little Lake Valley protests earlier this year.”

“Her work is extremely powerful and visually compelling in addition to being well-executed,” Wier says. “Oberg has a style that is both uniquely hers as well as very much reflective of Mendocino County’s counter-culture history. It literally grabs one’s attention which, as political protest work, is obviously extremely effective.”

Weir continues, “It is not included in this exhibit by virtue of its protest content and its inclusion in this exhibit is certainly not an endorsement of either side of the bypass debate nor prisons nor any other issue or cause. The gallery context has the power to shift how we read and relate to visual culture and, if anything, that is what I want viewers to be aware of and take away. In putting Oberg’s original protest drawings on the wall of the gallery, I intended to call attention to them as art.

“Even though her canvas and surfaces are not precious (copy paper, scraps of cotton, old t-shirts) they hold their own in the gallery setting. That creative use of material was another reason for her inclusion. A number of other artists in the exhibit also mix media in ways that are innovative such as Rose Easterbrook’s photo painting collages or Genine Coleman’s bone pigment on buckskin redwood.”

Regular gallery hours are Tuesday through Thursday from 12:30 to 3:30 and by appointment.  The exhibit runs through October 12, 2013.  See the gallery web site for more information.

Adrianna Oberg is currently accepting commissions for drawings.  You can contact her at magic.medicine [+atsymbol+] gmail dot com.