The Art of the Brick | The World's Most Elaborate Display of LEGO® Art

Exhibit Lego Wb Finalweek

The Art of the Brick | The World's Most Elaborate Display of LEGO® Art

May 25 - September 2, 2019

Presented by CEFCU

THE ART OF THE BRICK takes LEGO somewhere you wouldn’t expect and shows you things you have never seen before. The goal with this collection of art is to demonstrate the potential of imagination and the power of creativity .  - Nathan Sawaya, artist

THE ART OF THE BRICK, a captivating exhibition, features more than 100 intriguing works of art made exclusively from one of the most recognizable toys in the world, the LEGO brick! This critically acclaimed collection of creative and inspiring sculputures was created by renowned contemporary artist Nathan Sawaya.

Designed to inspire ingenuity and creativity, the collection highlights original pieces as well as re-imagined versions of some of the world's most famous masterpieces made exclusively from LEGO bricks, such as van Gogh's "The Starry Night" and da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" and a gallery showcasing an innovative, multimedia collection of LEGO brick-infused photography produced in tandem with award-winning photographer Dean West.

Visitors will have the opportunity to get up-close and in-person with the fan favorite, "Yellow," a life-size sculpture of a man ripping his chest open with thousands of yellow LEGO bricks cascading from the cavity. In addition, visitors will be able to walk under a 20-foot-long T-Rex dinosaur skeleton made out of bricks and come face-to-face with a giant LEGO skull. 

THE ART OF THE BRICK is the first major museum exhibition to use LEGO bricks as the sole art medium. Sawaya transforms LEGO bricks into tremendous and thought-provoking sculptures, elevating the toy to the realm of art. 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. 

THE SCIENCE OF THE BRICK | INTERACTIVE GALLERY

Discover your inner artist, engineer or architect in the hands-on, interactive LEGO® brick gallery “The Science of the Brick,” with building challenges, games, and open play spaces. Create your own brick masterpieces, build a maze out of LEGO bricks, design a brick race car at the Drag Race, and more! Take inspiration from Sawaya’s artwork to create your own LEGO brick sculptures and make whatever you can imagine. THE ART OF THE BRICK is sure to inspire the artist within!

EXHIBITION SPONSORS

The Peoria Riverfront Museum gratefully acknowledges our exhibition presenting sponsor, CEFCU, and our additionalsponsors, the Gilmore Foundation, Maui Jim, Terry Knueppel, Precision Planting, RLI and the Visionary Society. This program is partially supported by a grant from the Illinois Arts Council Agency.

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Photo: "Yellow," Nathan Sawaya