Figurative painters are notoriously reactionary toward new developments in artistic language and content, which is why Indiana-based painter Caleb Weintraub's integration of 3D imaging technology with traditional oil painting techniques is bold and refreshing. His richly colored large-scale portraits are structured around digitally composed scenes of figures and animals that are skillfully rendered in painted layers and glazes. The result is a unique blend of naturalism and virtual reality that looks like a cross between Jan van Eyck and World of Warcraft.

Take, for instance, the seven-by-nine-foot Adam and Evatar ...and the Dog with the Permanent Soul. Various animals surround a frontally posed prelapsarian couple in a flat landscape. The matter-of-fact realism of the male's nude body contrasts with the more stylized naturalism of the female's body and their exaggerated facial features. Juxtapositions of contrasting colors at the same saturation pulsate throughout the painting to create a vibrancy and overall feeling of flatness. The visual effect is something like a backlit LCD screen. Unfortunately, the painting’s wacky, hand-carved frame conflicts with this aesthetic; the painting might be more effective with a simple border that would augment the screen-like qualities of the image.

The painting reflects a visual language of contemporary digital technology, but given the rapid pace of innovations, this work might seem dated in just a few years. Just as Jenny Holzer's World I/II (1993), utilizing early virtual reality technology, and Mel Chin's KNOWMAD/MAP project (1999), housed in a video game arcade, were considered groundbreaking when they were made, they now seem ugly and painful to watch. Like these one-off experiments with new media technologies, I doubt Weintraub's current work will have much staying power. Nonetheless, he is pushing the language of painting in an important direction toward a dialogue with ubiquitous digitally crafted images. If he can continue to follow the investigation he has started, he may be able transcend the novelty of his technique.

If the viewer’s imagination could be engaged intellectually as well as visually, it could take the work to the next level. As it is, there is no framework to interpret Weintraub's characters or scenes. Some sort of mythology or narrative that ties all of the images together might give a way into Weintraub's world. If the artist would develop the concepts behind the work to the same degree as he has cultivated his craftsmanship, he could achieve an artistic value beyond seemingly superficial references to art-historical iconography and digital aesthetics.

The exhibition The Good Old Bad Old Days closed in July at Eggman and Walrus.