Art of Brick: Lego as Fine Art

‘Brick artist’ is what it says on Nathan Sawaya’s business card, which is not a card at all. Instead, it’s a classic 1×4 Lego brick, in yellow colour.

‘Yellow’ is also one of his best-known and iconic art pieces in his world-famous The Art Of The Brick exhibition that has finally landed in London. 

Where else but Brick Lane, it’s a perfect place for this immersive Lego art exhibition like no other. 

I’m not talking about your semi-big submarine that you built for your five-year-old and it took you three hours. (OK, that was me.)

I mean larger than human-sized sculptures and large scale mosaics. Nathan Sawaya, a lawyer-turned-artist, took a widely available medium – a Lego brick – and elevated it to a fine art status. 

Whilst walking through the exhibition rooms, I felt like I’m getting to know Nathan Sawaya pretty well, at least his playful side, with each art plaque, next to his Lego masterpieces: 

‘It’s a giant pencil. It’s way taller than me. It’s a great piece if you want to write on your ceiling. Which was something I always wanted to do.’ Says the plaque called ‘Pencil Yes’, built from 9,800 Lego bricks. 

Tiger-Giraffe – ‘This is what you might get if you crossed a tiger with a giraffe. I built this sculpture as a whimsical nod to my medium of choice: Crossing a toy with fine art.’

Knot – ‘I love puzzles, problems to solve. That’s probably why I was a lawyer in my previous life. But like a drawing by MC Escher, some problems have no beginning or end, and it’s hard to know where to start.’

But it’s not all ‘fun and games’. There were some serious hours, weeks, and months put into his giant 3-dimensional painstakingly built and meticulously crafted Lego sculptures.  

His world’s largest six-metre long T-Rex skeleton ‘took him a whole summer and it nearly drove him crazy’. 

My favourite parts of the Art of the Brick exhibition were the Human Expression and Human Condition. Themes of metamorphosis and transformation, including the already-mentioned ‘Yellow’, built from 11,000 individual yellow Lego bricks, depicting a top half of a human ‘ripping open’ their own chest, and a lot of yellow Lego bricks spilling out of it. Even children love that one: ‘Why? I think we grown-ups appreciate how cathartic ‘opening oneself up to the world’ can be for our souls. And the kids? Probably because yellow guts spilling out onto the floor looks cool.’

Past the big TV screen with a Lego-inspired short film playing, artworks like the giant Blue, Red and Yellow Facemasks, Pencil Head, Cracked, and Disintegration – ‘Beware the winds of life that nibbles aways at your sense of self. Stay strong’ – I reached Past Masters.

Yes, it’s the room with Van Gogh’s Starry Night, Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, Edvard Munch’s The Scream, and Johannes Vermeers’ Girl With Pearl Earring. Elaborate Lego version mosaics of the famous art pieces. There is Gustav Klimt’s The Kiss, and Nathan Sawaya had the opportunity to take it further, as this is a 3D, 18,000 Lego bricks version, and now we know what the kissing couple may have looked like from the back. 

Next you can marvel at the Lego portraits of Jimy Hendrix, Bob Dylan, Janice Joplin, and Andy Warhol. Or rather gorgeous, photography inspired ‘In-Pieces’ Lego artwork. The Red Dress is stunning. 

Before you reach the T-Rex, an excellent ‘mirrors, LED lights and sounds fun’ awaits you in the new installation section of the exhibition called Kinetic Skulls, with 250 skulls moving in a series of waves. 

Featuring over 100 Lego works of art and 1 million Lego bricks, the family-friendly Art of The Brick exhibition launched on 6th March, and the visitors will be able to use the ‘play and build area’ to explore their creativity. 

Tickets for Exhibition Hub’s Art of the Brick are available now and can be purchased from the Fever website here.