Artist Kyle Brooks' paintings in "A Bowl Full of Happiness" at Buckhead's Spalding Nix Fine Art suggest an off-the-hook child's birthday party featuring layer cake loaded with icing and multicolored sprinkles, rainbow confetti raining from the sky and even the suggestive sound of kazoos bleating out a melody of chaos.
Known as "Black Cat Tips," Brooks' purposefully naive, exuberant, delirious paintings are a rush of blood sugar-spiking sweetness and the kind of full-throttle merry-making that often ends in exhausted tears or a power nap. His paintings in assaultive shades of pink, yellow, green and blue are like an explosion at the Skittles factory. Inhabiting these festive worlds is an anarchical cast of creatures, animal — birds, alligators, cats and beavers make an appearance — alongside human figures and indeterminate ones, all boasting giddy smiles and extra-long lashes whose only mission appears to be to have a good time.