On September 28, I ventured to the exhibit Discovery Times Square in New York City with a classmate. There we saw the art gallery The Art of the Brick created by Nathan Sawaya. It is hard to believe but the whole gallery consisted of pieces created entirely out of Lego bricks. At the start of the gallery a short clip of Sawaya is shown where he offers some insight about why he chose Legos to create his art. Sawaya explains that he originally studied law at New York University and then practiced law for a few years. After work he would relieve his stress by building with Legos. He goes on to say that art can be made of anything and that it has no boundaries, he chose Legos because he finds them fun and he has loved building with them as a boy. In the exhibit Sawaya reveals mastery to the craft of Lego art and a progression in the order to which the pieces are displayed.

            Upon entering the gallery I was astounded by the level of detail and skill put into the works. The first part of the exhibit displays Sawaya’s skill by displaying Lego replicas of famous artworks such as “The Scream” and “The Mona Lisa”. In particular Sawaya’s replica of “The Scream” accentuates his ability. In this piece Sawaya displays depth and dimension by making the Screamer in the piece to be three dimensional while placing the environment of the original piece as a flat background. In his replica of the “Mona Lisa” he uses flat Legos rather than the standard rectangular bricks to give the illusion of paint on canvas. It is astonishing how his use of Legos can create vivid colors and textures in the piece, but in this perspective it is less of an exact copy and more of a blurred resemblance. Sawaya presents a new perspective to these classic pieces and being made out of Lego bricks adds to create a new piece as a whole. This is not only seen in Sawaya’s replicas of paintings but also in his replicas of tapestries and textiles.

There is something mystical about creating something from tiny Lego bricks. Nathan Sawaya’s use of Legos provides a childish position to major pieces. The pieces are so complex and the order to which he places each piece takes intricate and precise planning. This produces a contrast by how Legos are a simple child toy. One piece in the gallery was a replica of a Moai figure found in Easter Island, Chile. This piece was one of the largest sculptures Sawaya ever worked on, it took him months to complete. The final sculpture is to scale with the original and took 75,450 Lego pieces to create. The most impressive aspect of Sawaya’s work is creating curved lines and rounded edges with the use of rectangular pieces.

From replicas the gallery moves on to showcase some of Sawaya’s original works. Sawaya seems to draw inspiration from his everyday life and his emotions and experiences. One piece “Yellow” is displayed as the main advertisement for the exhibit and can be found in the center of the gallery. This piece is made entirely out of yellow Lego bricks and displays a man opening up his chest with his bar hands. As the man pulls open his chest more yellow Lego pieces pour out. I feel in this piece exemplifies a greater message. In that sense the color yellow is sometimes associated with fear or the phrase “yellow belly,” so the figure in the piece could possibly be releasing his fear or anxiety. Emotions are a large focus displayed in this gallery especially the emotions love and fear.

Sawaya focuses on love in the gallery when he creates images of his wife in portrait styles and sculptures of hearts and couples in situations. Again, there is a shift in the tone of the gallery from Sawaya’s more playful and jovial pieces to a darker and ominous mood. In this stage of the gallery the pieces seem to focus on the evil in the world. The gallery’s presentation adds to the feeling of suspense and mystery by placing these pieces in a black walled room with menacing music playing. The pieces in this part of the gallery consist of sculptures were figures are contorted or disfigured in grotesque way. The images if given in a more traditional style such as marble may be hard to look at, but as in Lego form the pieces are easier to look at and more welcoming fro viewers to take a closer look and try to understand Sawaya’s message. One piece was called “Grasp” and it had a completely red Lego figure being pulled toward a grey Lego wall by arms protruding from the wall. When I saw this piece and read the description I understood that in life sometimes there are hindrances that hold us back, but we need to keep moving forward and shake off the emotions and fears that have a hold on us. I believe the color scheme also adds to the emotion of the piece, while the red figure gives the connotation liveliness and spirited the grey arms and wall produce a dulling sensation.

Nathan Sawaya’s Lego gallery is an extraordinary example to answer the question what makes art. Art can be made out of anything you want it to be. Nathan’s gallery showcases art at multiple levels of understanding, being that all the pieces are made out of Lego bricks allow children to view in wonder and opens the world of art to them. The gallery can also inspire children to try to make the next big art style. For the older crowd Sawaya’s work provides perspective and can provoke contemplation and insight. Overall, I greatly enjoyed the experience, it made me think of new was to make art and to stat playing with Legos again. I look forward to seeing what new and creative pieces Sawaya plans on putting in the gallery in the future.