Nathan Sawaya

Nathan Sawaya delights adults and children alike with his bright, blocky sculptures made entirely out of LEGO bricks. He rediscovered this quintessential childhood toy after experimenting with a range of mediums, and has been working with it exclusively since the early 2000s. His painstakingly constructed forms encompass such everyday objects as umbrellas and pencils; animals, insects, and natural phenomena; portraits of celebrities; and human figures that serve as ciphers for his emotions. Among the largest of his works is a 20-foot-long Tyrannosaurus Rex skeleton, included in “The Art of the Brick,” a traveling exhibition of his work. Sawaya’s approach is uniquely democratic, as he explains: “I use the same LEGO bricks that you can buy in toy stores. […] If you get inspired to make your own creation, you too can go use the exact same bricks that I use.”