The Art of the Brick show has now come to Toronto as of today March 12th.

Nathan Sawaya is the artist. Yes I want to call his creations “art” and yes he is an artist, working with LEGO blocks and sometimes collaboratively with photographers such as Dean West.

Because the art is made from LEGO there’s a playful element, partly because I’m reminded of childhood, partly because my imagination has been stimulated by what I saw.

Some of his work is completely original, such as “Yellow” the piece shown above with the artist, that seems like a bit of a self-portrait. Here’s a view of the piece from the show, but without the artist.

I find the original pieces to be his most interesting. Here are some more examples.

Many of his pieces can be understood as adaptations, paraphrasing or imitating something you know via LEGO blocks. The pleasure in these is in parsing the differences, the gap between the piece we recognize and its new version in blocks. Sometimes it’s a perfect likeness, sometimes there’s a big gap, and that’s where a lot of the fun is to be found.

As Nathan said awhile ago about his work: “Look, it’s made of LEGO so it’s a fun exhibition.”

Here are a few examples.

I believe that if one doesn’t know the original, the magic isn’t there.

The recognition and the divergence between the original and its new version are where we experience the pleasures of adaptation, for better or worse.

In fairness, these are close-ups. From afar the likeness to the original is much stronger.

In some of these pieces there’s a wonderful synthesis of media, collaborative work between Nathan and photographers such as Dean West. In the show we’re given opportunities to see the LEGO creation alongside the photos, that sometimes are an astonishing juxtaposition, making you look again and again.

If nothing else we are in a realm of contemplation, looking at creations that make you think and challenge the way you process images. Sometimes the imitation is close enough to seem like a duplicate, other times there’s enough of a gap to immediate call attention to the use of LEGO, making the image playfully artificial, reminding us right away that it’s not the original. It’s an opportunity to stylize, to put distance between you and the object. Sometimes that’s welcome.

There’s a large range of images, some more like art, some pure fun. And afterwards, visit the gift shop, for some terrific merchandise.

Art of the Brick is presented at YZD 30 Hanover Rd, in Downsview, over 130 artworks constructed from more than one million LEGO pieces, along with a brand-new artwork created specifically for the Toronto engagement.

For further information or tickets visit their website.

Instagram: @artofthebrickexpo
Facebook: @artofthebrickexpo
Hashtags: #ArtOfTheBrick and #ArtOfTheBrickTO

Nathan’s life is inspiring, his art is stimulating & lots of fun. Making art out of LEGO means it’s relatable. If you can I recommend you check out his work at the show.