Nathan Sawaya is a New York-based artist who creates awe-inspiring works out of some of the most unlikely things. His recent North American museum tours feature large-scale sculptures using only toy building blocks. LEGO® bricks to be exact.
Sawaya’s art is currently touring North American museums in a show titled, The Art of the Brick. It’s the only exhibition focusing exclusively on LEGO as an art medium. The creations, constructed from nearly one million pieces, were built from standard bricks beginning as early as 2000.
Born in Colville, Washington and raised in Veneta, Oregon, Sawaya’s childhood dreams were always fun. He drew cartoons, wrote stories and perfected magic tricks. Of course much of his playtime centered on the emerging LEGO City he created in his parent’s living room. For more than twelve years the LEGO City flourished. And this is where Sawaya’s imagination soared, and consequently fine-tuned his future art form.
With more than 1.5 million colored bricks in his New York studio, Sawaya’s sculptures take many forms.
A 7-foot-long replica of the Brooklyn Bridge, a life-size tyrannosaurus rex skeleton, and Stephen Colbert are all now immortalized in plastic -- thanks to Sawaya.
His work is obsessively and painstakingly crafted and is both beautiful and playful. Sawaya’s ability to transform LEGO bricks into something new, his devotion to scale and color perfection, the way he conceptualizes the action of the subject matter, enables him to elevate an ordinary toy to the status of art.
According to journalist Scott Jones, “Sawaya is a surrealist mash-up of forms and artists. Imagine Frank Lloyd Wright crossed with Ray Harryhausen, or Auguste Rodin crossed with Shigeru Miyamoto, and you start to get a sense of where Sawaya is coming from.”
Sawaya’s art form takes shape primarily in 3-dimensional sculptures and oversized mosaic portraits. Some of his favorite pieces include a huge black and white self-portrait and a tribute to the rebirth of New Orleans.
He continues to build daily while accepting commission work from individuals and corporations requesting works of art and tradeshows looking for unique, eye-catching exhibits.
In addition, his work is also in collections including:
• Lancaster Museum of Art in Lancaster, PA
• Discovery Center Museum in Rockford, IL
• The Strong National Museum of Play in Rochester, NY
• The Building for Kids in Appleton, WI
• Time Warner Center public art display in New York, NY
• Qwest Field public art display in Seattle, WA
• LEGOLAND California in Carlsbad, CA
• FAO Schwarz in New York, NY
• The Toy Museum in Bellaire, OH
• The Dreier Collection in Santa Barbara, CA
• The National Museum of the Marine Corps in Quantico, VA
• The New Orleans Public Library public art display in New Orleans, LA