Art of the Brick is a travelling exhibition showcasing the work of Nathan Sawaya, an American artist who creates large, three-dimensional sculptures out of LEGO® bricks. The show is organised by Exhibition Hub, which presents touring shows - and has now been brought to The Boiler House on Brick Lane in London, the United Kingdom. Art of the Brick is on from March 6 - September 8, 2024 and has enthralled London audiences after touring over 100 cities.

Sawaya’s sculptures are compelling, both for the intricate nature of his pieces and their materiality. Art of the Brick’s offering is composed of over one million LEGO® pieces and reveals a maddening level of detail in the way Sawaya works with the ubiquitous plastic construction toy that has captured the imagination of children and adults alike, all over the world.

Exhibition Hub’s offering brings together over 100 sculpture art pieces by the artist, many of which are inspired by famous works of art. There is Sawaya’s take on The Scream (1893) by the Norwegian artist Edvard Munch (1863 - 1944), his version of The Kiss (1907 - 1908) by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt (1862 - 1918) and his recreation of Girl with a Pearl Earring (1665) by Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer (1632 - 1735) among others. Each of these is in three dimensions, creating a surreal effect in the minds of audience members familiar with the artworks from their original form as paintings. Meanwhile, visitors to the art exhibition who are unfamiliar with the works will be introduced to these historically important works of art in a rather novel format that sparks a great deal of joy by virtue of the construction material that has been used. For many, LEGO® bricks are synonymous with imaginative worldbuilding and Sawaya’s artworks certainly carry that sense of wonderment. Art critic and comedian Verity Babbs wrote about the importance of joyous art for STIR earlier this year.

The most intricate of the works on display is Sawaya’s Dinosaur Skeleton (2011), which is a life-size Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton composed of 80,020 LEGO® bricks and is a whopping 20 feet long. The large-scale art installation, created over the course of summer 2011, earned the sculpture artist the Guinness World Record for ‘Largest LEGO® brick skeleton’.

Sawaya’s artistic journey is unconventional and compelling. Having pursued a course in law, the artist would unwind with LEGO® sets after hours during his years as a corporate attorney on Wall Street. Eventually, he grew weary of his day job and completely dedicated himself to working with the construction toy from Denmark, coming to national attention for his artworks in 2004. Sawaya briefly worked with the LEGO® Group, but soon branched off and started his studio (also in 2004). The artist produces work at an incredibly fast pace, having himself lost count of his output. In a recent interview, he estimated that he’d created upward of 1,000 sculptures and this massive and obsessive body of work has included pieces that are even larger than his Tyrannosaurus skeleton. One particularly staggering work is the life-size recreation of ‘Central Perk’, the cafe from the famous American sitcom Friends, which Sawaya created with fellow LEGO® artist Brandon Griffith.

While Art of the Brick introduces audiences to a body of work whose size is difficult to comprehend unless it is engaged with in real-time, it may disappoint some to see so many copyist pieces within Sawaya’s oeuvre. When the artist’s sculptures are not completely figurative, they reference older works of art instead. It may be more provocative for Sawaya to explore imaginative, non-mimetic works, should he choose to go down such a path in his artmaking. Nevertheless, the exhibition displays the staggering toy design possibilities of the globally-recognised LEGO® toy and for that, is well worth attending. Some may feel irked at the sight of historically important paintings recreated using what they perceive as being a child’s plaything, while others may see these colourful bricks in a new light after experiencing Nathan Sawaya’s art.

‘Art of the Brick’ is on from March 6 - September 8, 2024, at the Boiler House in London, United Kingdom. It is organised by Exhibition Hub, in collaboration with Fever, a live event platform.