Free passes for this exhibit were available and so Matt and I spent a sunny Friday afternoon taking in the Art of the Brick.
Before we got started, we found out how tall we were in LEGO bricks.
Matt nearly reaches Albert Einstein’s 184 bricks.
I am a less-impressive 153 bricks.
Note that I am MUCH taller than a Minifig.
All of the LEGO art we are going to see was created by Nathan Sawaya, a former corporate lawyer who now is a full-time artist. The first part of the exhibit was Sawaya’s recreations of famous art works, in LEGO. I liked this, because most of them were in a 1:1 scale, which let me get a sense of size that the internet does not allow.
This was my favorite creation, which is not a 1:1, but rather 1:6 scale. I liked how they had it hanging so that you could see the light shining through the window.
Favorite part of this? The use of minifigs.
The next portion of the exhibit was Sawaya’s original art. You can see how he fashioned even the frames out of LEGOs.
I found much of Sawaya’s original creations, especially when paired with the artist statement of each piece, to be art that it would seem like a motivational speaker would create. Matt pointed out that Sawaya is a motivational speaker.
I liked better this reproduction of a T-Rex.
Matt has a chat.
The third part of the exhibit had a mashup of photography that included LEGO figures, such as the tree in this photo.
You could see the tree in person.
I also enjoyed our PDX carpet corner of the exhibit. Sawaya was raised in the area.
One of the last items were these hugging figures, which Sawaya leaves in parks in different cities.
Things that were missing from this exhibit? Process. How does Sawaya create his art? Sketches? Computer modeling? Trial and error? Does he purchase his LEGOs, or are they supplied by the company? Since the exhibits dates overlap, does he have multiples of each thing, or does each city get their own special items? Does he have assistants? How long does it take him to make things? So many questions!
This is so cool! I would love to see this in person. If he purchases his own LEGOs, then he must spend a lot of money! Those things ain’t cheap. Of course, he did use to be a corporate lawyer. I believe they make a decent chunk of change.
The PDX carpet corner is THE BOMB!!! Love that! I saw an interesting movie/news clip/article about his work somewhat recently and was very intrigued. I also liked the postcard you sent me from here!