Pixel me this!

Some young artists confuse me to the degree where I can’t make up my mind about how I feel about their art. This is certainly the case with Kristoffer Zetterstrand. He is one of many younger artists obsessed with digital media and computer games, but he is also obsessed with painting as a craft. In the press release published on his website an art critic describes his work: "he explores the relations between painting and the pictorial landscape made possible by new technology."

I think I have a problem with this approach, but I can’t put my finger on exactly what it is. Maybe it’s the paradox created by Zetterstrand’s refusal to use modern computer technology to print his pictures when they are rendered? He insists on painting them in oil, but by doing that he also reduces the craft of painting - aswell as the concepts of the pictures - to a technical exercise. An exercise of skill.

But, then again, how could you not like a guy that made this?