By John Chambless
Staff Writer

Mikaela Hall is the first artist featured in a renovated first-floor entryway space next to the Oxford Arts Alliance gallery, and her solo exhibit is fresh, dynamic and stylish.

Hall, who graduates from Oxford Area High School in June, is clearly a talented young artist who’s not afraid to push boundaries. Her drawings of women are powerful, sleek and packed with personality, conveyed with energetic pencil technique. Many of them are sultry nudes, showing an artistic maturity well beyond her years.

Hall has added witty comic-book style sketches to the two support pillars in the space, showing a deft wit that will no doubt blossom with time. Centered around high-school life, as well as darker fantasy sketches, they reflect both her youth and her potential.

The way she incorporates text into her drawings – mixing bold colors with the sketchy black lines of her figures – gives an additional depth to her work. As Hall goes off to art school in the fall, it will be rewarding to see what kind of work she brings back to Oxford in the future. Her debut solo show, “No Limits,” is a wonderful preview of things to come.

The first-floor Youth Gallery space will be used for rotating exhibitions by young artists, primarily, providing crucial gallery experience for the next generation of Oxford area artists.

Gallery hours are Tuesday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Visit www.oxfordart.org.

To contact Staff Writer John Chambless, email [email protected].