The Art Of The Brick Milan - artist: Nathan Sawaya

About Nathan Sawaya
Nathan Sawaya was born in Colville, Washington and raised in Veneta, Oregon. He attended New York University. Sawaya lives and works between his two studios located in New York City and Los Angeles.
Since his first solo exhibition, Sawaya's artwork has grabbed the attention of art critics and pop culture enthusiasts alike. His artwork has been shown in major art institutions throughout the world, and held in the collection of both prominent private and public collections. 
Sawaya was the first contemporary artist to ever take LEGO into the art world as a medium. His work is obsessively and painstakingly crafted and is both beautiful and playful. Sawaya’s ability to transform LEGO bricks into something new, his devotion to scale and color perfection, the way he conceptualizes the action of the subject matter, enables him to elevate an ordinary toy to the status of fine art. His unique sculptures and renowned touring exhibition, The Art of the Brick, continues to inspire creativity as well as break attendance records globally. 
Nathan Sawaya is the recipient of numerous awards and honors, recognizing his artwork and cultural achievements. In 2014, with the belief that "art is not optional," Sawaya founded The Art Revolution Foundation, for the purpose of making art a priority in our schools and our homes. He has been a speaker at Google Zeitgeist, TEDx, Yahoo! and at the Clinton Library. 
"Sawaya is a surrealist mash-up of forms and artists. Imagine Frank Lloyd Wright crossed with Ray Harryhausen, or Auguste Rodin crossed with Shigeru Miyamoto, and you start to get a sense of where Sawaya is coming from.” - Journalist, Scott Jones.

About the Art of the Brick
The Art of the Brick is a global touring exhibition rated by CNN as one of the world's "Must See Exhibitions." These are the first art exhibitions to focus exclusively on the use of LEGO bricks as an art medium and artist Nathan Sawaya has taken it to new heights.
This award-winning artist has multiple unique exhibitions created solely from standard LEGO bricks often with several new sculptures created specifically for each exhibition. Each show has countless colorful LEGO pieces which Sawaya has transformed into whimsical and awe-inspiring creations.
Sawaya’s ability to transform this common toy into something meaningful, his devotion to spatial perfection and the way he conceptualizes action, enables him to elevate what almost every child has played with into the status of contemporary art.
“These works are very personal to me, since they reflect my growth as an artist as I strove to discover my creative identity,” said Sawaya. “The museum exhibition is accessible because it engages the child in all of us while simultaneously illuminating sophisticated and complex concepts. Everyone can relate to the medium since it is a toy that many children have at home. But my goal with this exhibition when it first debuted in 2007 was to elevate this simple plaything to a place it has never been before.” (Nathan Sawaya)
Gabriella Ruggieri for 1blog4u

Useful links:
-Nathan Sawaya http://www.nathansawaya.com/biography.html
-The Art of the Brick, Milano https://theartofthebrickexpo.com/milano/

Visit the Gallery
ph. Vaifro Minoretti

 

NIKE OF SAMOTHRACE - NIKE DI SAMOTRACIA
numero di pezzi/brick count: 5.646
scale: 1:3

"Nike was the Greek winged goddess of victory. In this sculpture, she stands on the prow of a sculpted ship. The sculpture was originally part of a fountain. It may have commemorated a naval victory and dedicated by the people of Rhodes. The sculpture dons a long chiton that falls to her feet, held in place by a belt below her chest.

The sculptor placed great detail il the fabric’s flow and the detection of her figure beneath the sheer lines of the fabric. The folds create shadows that give the feel of wind and movement. Her unfastened thick cloak blows back, pushing against her figure from the wind. Her feet were sculpted separately from the original sculpture’s body, and have been lost. The lines of her composition show the progression in sculpting the human figure in motion.
The wings are almost horizontal and her hips and shoulders face the viewer, while the right shoulder it raised suggesting that the right arm was lifted into the air. The sculpture may have also held a wreath or a trumpet in her right hand.
For the brick replica version, I decided to reduce the scale of the sculpture to one third of the original. The great wings that extend horizontally from the body of the sculpture proved to be a difficult engineering task, and I feared their weight would topple the sculpture if I built it at the actual size of the original". (Nathan Sawaya)

THE ORIGINAL
Artist: unknow
Dimensions: 245 cm
Materials: marble
Date: 180 BC
Origin: Greece

GREAT SPHINX OF GIZA
numero di pezzi/brick count: 2.604
scale: 1:50

"The Sphinx is a mythological creature with the body of a lion and the head of a human. Located on the Giza Plateau, bordering the Sahara, the largest Sphinx sculpture is the Great Sphinx of Giza which guards the Great Pyramids of Giza on the bank of the Nile River. The head of the Great Sphinx is believed to be the pharaoh Khafra of the 4th Dynasty (ruled 2258-2532 BC). Khafra was also the pharaon who commanded the building of the Second Pyramid at Giza. The Great Sphinx is the largest monolith statue in the world, as well as the oldest monumental sculpture. The nose of the front of the face is missing, having fallen off or been destroyed hundreds of years ago. 

For the brick replica version, I decided not to do a life-size replica of the Great Sphinx. However, if you were to place a “LEGO Minifigure” next of this brick replica, it would be proportional to a real person standing next to the real Great Sphinx. I wanted to capture the sandy look of the original Great Sphinx which worked with the brick colour and the various striations in the body of the brick version". (Nathan Sawaya)

BOB, JANIS and JIMI
numero di pezzi/brick count: 1.180, 1.070, 1.203
64x64 cm (each)

"This is a portrait of a musician named Bob Dylan. This portrait, along with Janis Joplin and Jimi Hendrix, were created for an American exhibition in 2011. It took less than a week to create".(Nathan Sawaya)

CELLO
numero di pezzi/brick count: 7.695
140x46x28 cm

"As an attempt to inspire kids to explore music, I created this life-size cello completely out of LEGO bricks. Although it is the exact size as a real cello, please don’t try to play it: it might look like a cello but it sounds like LEGO!" (Nathan Sawaya)