WILSHIRE CENTER

David Settino Scott’s paintings are like mementos of a belief system long obsolete in the art world. Done in the style of Italian religious frescoes of the 15th Century, Scott’s hinged altarpieces employ many of the conventions of early Renaissance painting to comment on the decadence of contemporary life. Moralizing of this sort is a bit out of vogue these Post-Modern days; we’re all supposed to be too glutted with information and too blase to entertain notions of good and evil. But as I said, Scott is a throwback to an earlier time, and his work depicts man as an evil creature with a base nature.

Nine pieces here--variations on the biblical “Eve” fable--make a valiant effort to reinvest sex with the notion of sin. We see Eve smiling lasciviously as she dangles the fateful apple, Eve in a red G-string--Eve even becomes the snake in one painting.

Lacing his sermon with humor that occasionally degenerates into cheap burlesque, Scott takes on the movie industry in “The Attack of the Frog People: Movie.” A back-handed homage to Bosch, the piece depicts an orgy in a garden involving life-size frogs and humans in various acts of debauchery; the ideas expressed here are a bit obvious and the piece reveals Scott to be more skilled as a painter than he is as a humorist. The most compelling things about these gold-leafed little treasures is their visual beauty. (Turske & Whitney, 962 N. La Brea Ave., to Feb. 14.)