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Snap, crackle, pop! The cheery elves in Brett Reichman's work immediately bring breakfast cereal to mind. His lambs might perk up Saturday morning TV too.
But, as with some advertised products, things aren't always what they seem.
Reichman's pointed-nose pixies, dressed like candy canes, wrestle with unfulfilled desire; their frozen smiles mask foreboding. The keening of his baby sheep go silent in a world where innocence has become what he calls "an empty shell."
"The lamb is a universal symbol of innocence and sacrifice," Reichman said. "My work has been about a certain loss of cultural innocence."
Six of Reichman's vividly rendered paintings make up the aptly titled show, "It's Hard to Be Happy," on view through Oct. 4 at the Orange County Museum of Art.
His first solo museum exhibit, this grouping of recent oils also revives the former Newport Harbor Art Museum's series showcasing up-and-coming California artists.
"One of the most engaging painters to emerge in the San Francisco Bay Area in the past decade," wrote OCMA curator Bruce Guenther in an exhibit brochure. "Reichman presents a prescient conundrum to the art world--a gay artist whose beautiful...