The Art of the Brick Tampa

"Art can be anything."
Nathan Sawaya

Last weekend, Ron and I drove to downtown Tampa to see The Art of the Brick, a first-of-its-kind exhibit of sculptures by artist Nathan Sawaya, made entirely out of LEGO bricks. The exhibit, which began June 23 and runs through September 4, has been very popular and even though we got there just a few minutes after it opened, there was already a line of people waiting to get inside. Fortunately, the staff were handing out umbrellas to use for shade while we waited. Even at 10 o’clock in the morning, it was already blazing hot.

The wait wasn't too long, and we were inside in less than 20 minutes. The Art of the Brick opened with a biographical video presentation by Sawaya. Sawaya was a corporate lawyer who left his law career to pursue art. Why did he choose LEGOs for his medium? Because they are fun, and because no one had done it before.

The exhibit included several collections of sculptures, starting with Paint by Bricks, Sawaya’s recreations of famous works of art, such as the Mona Lisa and Van Gogh’s Starry Night. Some paintings, like American Gothic, were re-imagined as three-dimensional pieces. Then there were life-sized sculptures, like Michelangelo’s David, Venus de Milo and a gigantic replica of a Moai statue. I liked that each item listed how many LEGO bricks it took to build it, from fewer than 1000 to over 80,000 bricks!

Starry Night

American Gothic

Whistler's Mother

Michelangelo's David, Augustus of Prima Porta and Venus de Milo

Moai of Easter Island

the Tyrannosaurus Rex took 80,020 bricks and an entire summer to build

Another collection was called the Human Condition. Many of these pieces had a surreal quality, depicting Sawaya’s personal fears and accomplishments. “My favorite subject is the human form. A lot of my work suggests a figure in transition. It represents the metamorphosis I am experiencing in my own life,” says Sawaya. My favorite sculpture in this display was “Crowd”, with the image of an eye superimposed onto a crowd of walking people.

One gallery held a mixed media collection called In Pieces. This collection was a series of photographs with LEGO sculptures incorporated into the scenes, a collaboration between Sawaya and photographer Dean West. It was interesting searching the photos for the LEGO items. The most elaborate piece was a red dress that looked like it was being tattered by the wind.

Grasp

Crowd

Yellow

Red Dress

At the end of the exhibit was the Brick Yard, a large room with bins full of LEGO bricks for kids (or adults) to build their own creations. Sawaya's belief is that art helps us understand the world, that art is for everyone, and that art is fun! It’s too bad he wasn’t sculpting when I was growing up. I might have paid more attention in Art History class. :-)

It all starts with one brick

Travel Tips: Thanks to the Vinik family who brought the exhibit to Tampa, The Art of the Brick is free to the public. There is a parking lot nearby charging $5, as well as metered parking spots along the street. The exhibit runs through September 4 but if you can't make it to Tampa in time, you may be able to catch Sawaya's amazing sculptures in another city. Visit The Art of the Brick's website for the schedule: http://www.brickartist.com/schedule.html.