WILSHIRE CENTER

As a striking example of the contemporary tendency to mine history for inspiration, Milo Reice has the chutzpah to fancy himself a modern-day Raphael. Working in oil and gouache on various materials, he makes paintings that bristle with ambition. The Italian Renaissance is Reice’s most frequent source, but in a show of 11 narrative works (including a 51-piece mural) he also dips into Aesop’s fables, the Pygmalion myth, Joseph Conrad’s adventures and the ancient art of Greece, Egypt and Mesopotamia.

All this should lend a degree of high seriousness to Reice’s paintings, but they exude a comic air that may be intentional. He hasn’t joined the historical lampoon camp, but he can’t resist illustrating silly scenarios with all the subtlety of a Thomas Hart Benton. His mergers of past and present can amuse--as when he turns the creation myth into a high-tech version of Pygmalion. We see muscular young men bringing their beloved female statues to life with the help of control panels and a maze of machinery. In “That’s Rock ‘n’ Roll,” a malformed Aesop sits on a garbage can, spinning yarns to enthralled kids and animals.

Formally, Reice’s fragmented compositions and inept handling of light are often distracting. Emotionally, the paintings are so full of themselves that they look like manic kids’ stuff. But despite such problems, the work is so packed with energy, a fascination with storytelling and the sense of an honest search for something important that it engenders respect and interest in this artist’s future. (Saxon-Lee Gallery, 7525 Beverly Blvd., to Jan. 3.)