Robert Hightower
Icons of the Toybox, July 27 - Sept 7, 2024
"Icons of the Toybox," an exciting new exhibition featuring the captivating paintings of Robert Hightower. This collection merges childhood nostalgia with contemporary critique, blending impressions from TV shows, cartoons, films, and toys into striking works of art. Hightower's pieces evoke a sense of superposition, layering these elements into compositions that invite intense meditation and admiration.
Traditionally, icon paintings center on a singular object, or a group arranged in a classical triangular composition, often with a focus on religious figures. However, Hightower reinterprets this tradition for the modern age, reflecting our contemporary society's obsession with material possessions and the American Dream. Toys, in his work, become symbols that whitewash the past and embody the dreams we are sold from an early age. Among his earliest memories are objects like a G.I. Joe, a Big Wheel, and plastic Cowboys and Indians, which now serve as powerful icons in his paintings.
Under the Big Blue Sky, April 29 - May 27, 2023