Holy Robert Xavier Burden, Batman! Seven years ago, the San Francisco–based artist took up an unusual kind of iconography. The oil paintings in Burden’s “Toy Box” series place various childhood artifacts—including toys, superheroes, and robots—front and center. With their ornate borders and backgrounds, the paintings resemble stained-glass windows or tapestries, and the religious allusions are hard to miss. But don’t tell Burden that he’s commenting on how American society fetishizes mass-market detritus. He says the images were simply undertaken to reawaken his—and by extension our—sense of childlike wonder at our old playthings. At Shooting Gallery, 886 Geary St., San Francisco, (415) 931-1500. Prices range from $900 to $30,000.
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