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visual art
Observing people examining the paintings in the Brandywine River Museum's new show is more like watching visitors at a funhouse hall of mirrors than patrons at an art exhibition. Trompe l'oeil has always been regarded as equal parts technical feat and parlor trick, with little allowance for personal expression. "Reality Check: Contemporary American Trompe l'Oeil" updates the form, most associated with its late 19th-century heyday, with 22 modern-day practitioners (more or less; several of the pieces would be more accurately termed "realistically rendered still lifes" and aren't out to fool anyone). As evidenced by those viewers spotted pressing their faces against the museum's walls to inspect the pictures' dimensionality, these paintings retain that traditional sense of sleight-of-hand, but a few of the artists invite inspection of the subjects themselves rather than simply their realism. Mikel Glass' Emergence is a life-size depiction of the artist bursting from his canvas, baring an unexpected vulnerability in such surroundings, while Steve Mills' re-creation of his daughter's bedroom bulletin board is a bittersweet farewell from an empty nest.