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Nathan Sawaya starts with a single brick, and ends with tens of thousands of little coloured plastic pieces that combine and bring to life Roman sculpture, a flowing red dress, a man trying to escape clutching hands, or a castle popping up from a storybook.
Sawaya makes art from Lego bricks.
His exhibit, The Art of the Brick, opens Wednesday and runs until Labour Day at the Canada Science and Technology Museum.
“Some of the work is from early on and it’s very straightforward and representational. Some of it is more surreal,” the artist said Monday during a media preview.
The Art of the Brick by artist Nathan Sawaya is a critically acclaimed collection of inspiring artworks made exclusively from one of the most recognizable toys in the world: the LEGO® brick.
Sawaya came to art through the back door.
He practised corporate law: Mergers and acquisitions and securities law in New York City. “I found that although I worked with some great people, it just wasn’t making me happy. I wanted to find something that I enjoyed more,” he said.
“I would come home at night and need some sort of creative outlet. I tried different things and just one day I thought about my childhood toy, Lego bricks, as an art medium,” he said.
“I started experimenting with it and eventually made the decision to leave the law firm behind to become a full-time artist that plays with toys.”
He learned pretty quickly that artists earn less than corporate lawyers.
“That was an interesting transition because I was going from a very secure lifestyle to (one where) I didn’t know what the result would be. Would I be able to pay rent the next month?”
The Art of the Brick by artist Nathan Sawaya is a critically acclaimed collection of inspiring artworks made exclusively from one of the most recognizable toys in the world: the LEGO® brick.
Luckily, the ideas and commissions keep coming in.
“I actually let my legal licence expire so that it would force me going forward. I didn’t want to have that safety net behind me.”
At the beginning, he said, “I had a lot of doors slammed in my face.” This couldn’t be considered real art, people told him. But it has grown into a 10-year career, and now a travelling exhibit.
It’s a full-time preoccupation. Sometimes ideas come to him when he’s not expecting them and he has to write them down.
“It does occupy my time quite a bit, and my thoughts, because it is my passion. I love going to the studio and being able to just get my hands on some bricks. It’s probably very therapeutic.
“I sit in the studio alone, with my dog at my feet, and I am just building, creating.”
Sometimes a project doesn’t work. He may be tens of thousands of pieces into a sculpture and realize that a major part of it is just wrong.
“That is why you need patience for this job … If (a work) doesn’t look right, I will just take a hammer and a chisel and tear it apart. And it’s heartbreaking.”
The hammer and chisel are metaphors but the feeling is not. His biggest setback, he figures, wiped out a week of work and made him feel depressed, “but you go into these projects knowing that it is not going to be done in an afternoon.”
The Art of the Brick by artist Nathan Sawaya is a critically acclaimed collection of inspiring artworks made exclusively from one of the most recognizable toys in the world: the LEGO brick.
The biggest piece in the show is a Tyrannosaurus rex, a mighty beast that took him an entire summer to create.
There’s also a roomful of copies of famous paintings and sculptures: The Kiss by Klimt interpreted in three dimensions; a Monet view of the Thames; Hokusai’s Great Wave.
Admission to the exhibit and museum together costs $22 for adults, $18 for seniors and $15 for youth.
tspears@postmedia.com
twitter.com/TomSpears1
查看原文...
Sawaya makes art from Lego bricks.
His exhibit, The Art of the Brick, opens Wednesday and runs until Labour Day at the Canada Science and Technology Museum.
“Some of the work is from early on and it’s very straightforward and representational. Some of it is more surreal,” the artist said Monday during a media preview.
The Art of the Brick by artist Nathan Sawaya is a critically acclaimed collection of inspiring artworks made exclusively from one of the most recognizable toys in the world: the LEGO® brick.
Sawaya came to art through the back door.
He practised corporate law: Mergers and acquisitions and securities law in New York City. “I found that although I worked with some great people, it just wasn’t making me happy. I wanted to find something that I enjoyed more,” he said.
“I would come home at night and need some sort of creative outlet. I tried different things and just one day I thought about my childhood toy, Lego bricks, as an art medium,” he said.
“I started experimenting with it and eventually made the decision to leave the law firm behind to become a full-time artist that plays with toys.”
He learned pretty quickly that artists earn less than corporate lawyers.
“That was an interesting transition because I was going from a very secure lifestyle to (one where) I didn’t know what the result would be. Would I be able to pay rent the next month?”
The Art of the Brick by artist Nathan Sawaya is a critically acclaimed collection of inspiring artworks made exclusively from one of the most recognizable toys in the world: the LEGO® brick.
Luckily, the ideas and commissions keep coming in.
“I actually let my legal licence expire so that it would force me going forward. I didn’t want to have that safety net behind me.”
At the beginning, he said, “I had a lot of doors slammed in my face.” This couldn’t be considered real art, people told him. But it has grown into a 10-year career, and now a travelling exhibit.
It’s a full-time preoccupation. Sometimes ideas come to him when he’s not expecting them and he has to write them down.
“It does occupy my time quite a bit, and my thoughts, because it is my passion. I love going to the studio and being able to just get my hands on some bricks. It’s probably very therapeutic.
“I sit in the studio alone, with my dog at my feet, and I am just building, creating.”
Sometimes a project doesn’t work. He may be tens of thousands of pieces into a sculpture and realize that a major part of it is just wrong.
“That is why you need patience for this job … If (a work) doesn’t look right, I will just take a hammer and a chisel and tear it apart. And it’s heartbreaking.”
The hammer and chisel are metaphors but the feeling is not. His biggest setback, he figures, wiped out a week of work and made him feel depressed, “but you go into these projects knowing that it is not going to be done in an afternoon.”
The Art of the Brick by artist Nathan Sawaya is a critically acclaimed collection of inspiring artworks made exclusively from one of the most recognizable toys in the world: the LEGO brick.
The biggest piece in the show is a Tyrannosaurus rex, a mighty beast that took him an entire summer to create.
There’s also a roomful of copies of famous paintings and sculptures: The Kiss by Klimt interpreted in three dimensions; a Monet view of the Thames; Hokusai’s Great Wave.
Admission to the exhibit and museum together costs $22 for adults, $18 for seniors and $15 for youth.
tspears@postmedia.com
twitter.com/TomSpears1
查看原文...
