Plenty for All: The Art of Rick Fröberg

Rick Fröberg was an accomplished artist and musician born in Southern California who spent most of his early creative years in San Diego before moving to New York, and then back to San Diego toward the end of his life. While juggling both of his creative outlets, he established a meaningful, urgent, vital, and powerful platform. Plenty for All: The Art of Rick Fröberg represents the many chapters and layers of his visual art practice. All of the different bodies of work he made are examined in detail--presenting the viewer with a well-rounded survey of his life's work, mostly in chronological order.

One of the most compelling and fascinating aspects of this volume is the physical progression of Fröberg's line work and brushstroke, and his eventual adaptation to digital means. His artwork was often featured on the record covers of his own bands, as well as other groups he met on the road, and much of his early work also appeared on posters, flyers, ads, skateboard graphics, logos, and T-shirt designs, before eventually progressing to illustrations in magazines, books, and newspapers. Fröberg's paintings, drawings, etchings, and prints were also shown at art exhibitions throughout his career.

Plenty for All is the first look at his visual artwork in book form. It will be of great interest across the globe to his many fans (he played in a range of popular bands, including Pitchfork, Drive like Jehu, Hot Snakes, and Obits). Fröberg's work has become very influential, and an inspiration to quite a large group of people in both the art and music worlds. He is sadly missed and mourned, but this volume will no doubt further his creative legacy. It includes short essays by curator Rich Jacobs and musician/artist Sohrab Habibion.

Review Quotes:
Rick Fröberg had one of the great rock voices. He sang and screamed, amused bemusement, naturally, effortlessly, with fine-grained grit. His visual art is equally deft and fluid. And much like his lyrics, the subtle sly humor in his art knocks you out without hitting you over the head.--Mark Arm (Mudhoney)

Review Quotes:
The late Rick Fröberg made music in a host of critically acclaimed bands--if you've enjoyed Drive Like Jehu or Hot Snakes, you've heard some of the visceral music he was capable of making. This was only one side of Fröberg's creative practice, however; he was also a visual artist with a distinctive style, and this new volume brings together highlights from his decades of making art.-- "InsideHook"

Review Quotes:
If you only know Rick Fröberg from his prodigious rock and roll résumé, this book will be like discovering a whole other room in a house you thought you knew well--or more accurately, like finding a whole extra mansion appended to a familiar mansion. Fröberg's art is fearless, wild, gorgeous, incredibly skilled, and informed by the same passion and seismic energy he brought to the stage. In a life cut short, he gave the world a thousand lifetimes' worth of art across so many disciplines. This book is a gift to us all.--Emily Flake, writer, cartoonist, proprietor of the St. Nell's Humor Writing Residency

Review Quotes:
Somehow Rick managed to convey the same wound-up energy of his guitar playing and performing in the lines of his artwork . . . kinetic but wary, on the edge of control, about to spring off the page. Inspirational.--Mac McCaughan (Superchunk)

Review Quotes:
This expansive debut survey showcases the visual work of Rick Fröberg (1968-2023), an artist and musician best known for his fliers, posters, and other artwork promoting the Southern California punk scene . . . Fröberg was an exceptional craftsman, the collection shows, equally capable of startlingly realistic traditional illustration, Cubism-inspired abstract art, and outlandish cartoon pastiches in the style of 1960s underground comix . . . It's a vivid retrospective of an eclectic artist that will leave some fans itching to know more.-- "Publishers Weekly"

Review Quotes:
Fröberg exemplified the ups and downs of his subculture, developing a chaotic and idiosyncratic style that imbued his visual art and his music. Bookended by short but heartfelt essays by curator Rich Jacobs and musician and artist Sohrab Habibion (one of Fröberg's frequent collaborators), this book explores the artistic path Fröberg followed to find his singular visual voice and is illustrated by several dozen drawings, paintings, illustrations, woodcuts, linocuts, graphic designs, and notes that made his work emblematic of the punk movement at the end of the 20th century.-- "Library Journal"

Review Quotes:
Rick Fröberg tragically passed away in 2023 at the all-too-young age of 55. He achieved immortality of a sort though, because his art and his music will be remembered through the ages. Fröberg was in the bands Pitchfork, Drive Like Jehu, Hot Snakes, and Obits--all worthy of your attention. Here, we get to enjoy a beautifully packaged collection of his visual art, and it's a proper treat . . . He was also exhibited throughout his career, because he was brilliant. See for yourself.-- "Music Connection"