Last week it was Mr O Senior’s birthday so as part of his celebration adventures we all visited an exhibition called The Art of the Brick, which is currently taking place at The Old Truman Brewery in Shoreditch.
The exhibition is a showcase of New York-based artist, Nathan Sawaya’s work… and it’s particularly interesting because everything is made out of LEGO bricks. Sawaya is the first ever artist to sculpt exclusively in LEGO and brings an interesting juxtaposition of playful and serious to his pieces.
Sawaya has created a wide range of pieces across different themes and genres, including reproductions of famous works… like these ones of the Venus de MIlo, Edward Munch’s The Scream and Vermeer’s Girl With the Pearl Earring.
Some of his work is more whimsical, like this Tiger Giraffe:
Or this mega dinosaur, which took up a whole room and required over 50,000 bricks.
But Sawaya’s most interesting pieces capture his desire for self exploration.
I particularly liked this sculpture of a swimmer.
And this amazing red dress, which was later superimposed on a model in a photograph.
And who wouldn’t love a LEGO portrait of Jimi Hendrix?
Of course it wouldn’t be art appreciation with Abbi if I didn’t goof off just a little…
if, like me, you grew up building things with LEGO and love imaginative, new artistic mediums I would highly recommend checking out The Art of The Brick, which is open until 12 April. You can buy tickets here.
I think you will be just as satisfied as Mr O Senior was when you get to the end.
abbiosbiston 
Oh – this looks great. I want to go to this! Great post, Abbi! : )
It’s on for another month so I hope you get to see it.
That’s some cool shit, right there!
This is only about a quarter of it. It was awesome!
I bet!
i love legos. These sculptures are incredible! thanks for sharing!
You’re welcome. I took so many photos!
So awesome! I was hoping you’d post about this!
I’m really glad you enjoyed it. We had such a fun time.
Cool! Thanks for sharing 🙂 If I get the chance I will definetly go to see this exibition, maybe it’s coming to Austria one day. I ❤ Lego 😉
I hope you do get to see it. It’s such a unique exhibition!
Awesome!
I loved it!
OMG these are phenomenal!! I wish they’d show this in my city. Thanks for sharing Abbi, my fave is the sculpture of a swimmer, too!
The swimmer one was so beautiful because the room was all lit up to look like water. The artist said that you could see the swimmer above but what was below the water was a mystery which I also thought was very cool.
I have to check this out! I loved Lego as a child and still do!
It’s on for another month so you should totally check it out.
Ahhhhh! This looks absolutely fantastic! I love the pics of you and Mr O Senior, very entertaining!
Mr O Senior had a whale of a time being the birthday boy.
Ohhh very cool!
It was such an interesting exhibition!