'The Art of the Brick' is an exhibition I've done where I've taken some works of art from art history and replicated them all out of Lego bricks.

Nathan Sawaya

Categorized in : Some Art History Done

Art makes better humans, art is necessary in understanding the world and art makes people happy. Undeniably, art is not optional.

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I have realised that my worst day as an artist is still better th... by Nathan Sawaya

I have realised that my worst day as an artist is still better than my best day as a lawyer.

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I like using LEGO bricks as a medium because I enjoy seeing people’s reaction to artwork created from something with which they are familiar. …My goal is to elevate this simple plaything to a place it has never been before. I also appreciate the cleanliness of the LEGO® brick. The right angles. The distinct lines. But, from a distance, those right angles and distinct lines offer new perspectives, changing to curves.

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Inspiration is tough to define, it comes from so many different places. I have multiple exhibitions touring the globe, so I do travel quite a bit and travel is a great way to find inspiration.

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When people go to museums and see a sculpture made out of marble, they appreciate it but it's very doubtful that they will go home and have a slab of marble they can chip away at, but people do have LEGO. I don't have any LEGO specially made for me, all of the shapes, sizes and colours I use are available in stores so that if someone is inspired to create on their own, they can go and buy the very same bricks.

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I'm trying to inspire as many people as I can. I want the viewer to enjoy the art and I want the whole family to have something to react to. I hope that folks go home and do a bit of doodling and creating on their own.

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Over the years I have learned that creating art has made me happy. I used to be a lawyer and I'm much happier being an artist.

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LEGO is universal. So many people enjoy it, from all different walks of life, all different ages, all different cultures. When I was in Africa, I had LEGO bricks with me and I met some people who had never heard of LEGO, they had never seen it before and yet as soon as I gave them a few bricks, they immediately got it.

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One of the reasons I love using LEGO bricks is because it makes the art very relatable and accessible; folks can connect with the art almost on a different level because they have played with it or their kids have played with it.

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’The Art of the Brick’ exhibition is accessible because it engages the child in all of us while simultaneously illuminating sophisticated and complex concepts. Everyone can relate to the medium since it is a toy that many children have at home. But my goal with this exhibition when it first debuted in 2007 was to elevate this simple plaything to a place it has never been before.

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The fact that you can take LEGO bricks from thirty years ago and they still snap together with the same new LEGO brick that comes out, I mean what type of product can span generations like that, there is something really special to it.

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I wasn’t happy as a lawyer, and creating art made me happy, and so I just decided to leave the law firm behind and be a full-time artist … that plays with toys.

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If I'm creating a free-form piece of art, I can make it look like anything I want, and nobody will say it's wrong.

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The team behind 'The Lego Movie' approached me. They wanted to do something extra special for the Academy Award performance of best song nominee 'Everything is Awesome.' They had seen my earlier version of a Lego Oscar statue, and I was happy to take on the challenge.

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Kids can't build a marble statue at home. But I've had parents tell me that, after an exhibit, their kids immediately dug out their Lego kits and disappeared for three days.

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I was looking to explore the theme of good and evil, so what better inspiration than the comics? I'd developed a relationship with DC and Warner Bros. when I donated a sculpture of Catwoman to the 'We Can Be Heroes' campaign a few years ago. That's what started it.

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I've made a bit of a career taking daunting projects out of Lego. I've done things like a dinosaur skeleton and stuff like that.

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I am confined to the Lego palate. I don't paint the bricks. I stick with what Lego has made. And the idea behind that is I do want to hopefully inspire kids to go home and create on their own. And if I do, I want them to be able to buy those very same bricks I use. So I don't alter the bricks; I just use what's provided.

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I see the world in rectangles. If I am talking to someone, I find myself analysing their face, working out how to recreate it in bricks.

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I do hear from people at my exhibition about seeing these things made from this toy from their childhood, and it brings them back. They'll go and buy a set of Lego from the gift shop because of that nostalgia and seeing it at the art exhibition.

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