Experience The Art of the Brick, the world’s largest display of LEGO® art! Artist Nathan Sawaya created more than 100 pieces for this exhibition using only LEGO bricks. The collection features original pieces, as well as re-imagined versions of some of the world’s most famous art masterpieces. More than one million LEGO bricks were used to create Sawaya’s sculptures.
BUY COMBO: NYSCI ADMISSION + ART OF THE BRICKMORE THAN 100 LEGO BRICK SCULPTURES
Through his devotion to spatial perfection, Sawaya transforms LEGO bricks into thought-provoking sculptures, elevating the toy to the realm of contemporary art. The collection features many of Sawaya’s original pieces, as well as re-imagined versions of some of the world’s most famous art masterpieces, such as Michelangelo’s David, Van Gogh’s Starry Night and Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. In addition, Sawaya created a 20-foot Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton (comprised of over 80,000 LEGO bricks). Also on display at NYSCI will be 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. Yellow has gained pop culture fame appearing on fashion labels, album covers and even in Lady Gaga’s music video G.U.Y. The exhibition also contains a gallery showcasing an innovative, multimedia collection of LEGO brick infused photography produced in tandem with award-winning photographer Dean West.
Art of the Brick; Dino. By: Nathan Sawaya
THE SCIENCE OF THE BRICK
In addition to Sawaya’s sculptures, The Art of the Brick also includes an interactive section called “The Science of the Brick.” In this section, you can create and design using different LEGO brick building challenges, games and a free play area.
The activity stations in “The Science of the Brick” include:
- Art & Architecture – Recreate famous building, bridges and structures using LEGO bricks.
- Hidden Hands – Build a mystery object inside a covered box using only your sense of touch.
- Assistive Devices – Design a tool that will allow you to pick up an object on a post through a series of various sized windows.
- Describe It – Build a simple object out of view and describes the object to your friend. Then, see if your friend can build the same object based only on the description.
- Six Bricks – Find out how many different things you can build using only six LEGO Duplo bricks.
- LEGO Drag Race – Build a LEGO brick car and test it out on ramps of different inclines.
- Tilt Maze – Rearrange straight LEGO “bar” bricks to create a maze for a wooden ball to navigate through on a tilt-table.
- LEGO Music Box – Create your own unique song using a special LEGO baseplate. On the baseplate, horizontal lines represent different “tracks,” and vertical columns represent the eight “beats.” Use different colored LEGO bricks as instruments or notes/pitches to create your song. Then put the visual representation of your song under a camera, where simple image processing algorithms will turn it into music.
- Free Play – Use your imagination in the free play area to make and create with bins of LEGO bricks and LEGO Duplo bricks.
Artist Nathan Sawaya with his sculpture, Blue Sitting Guy
ADMISSION, DIRECTIONS AND HOURS
The Art of the Brick costs $7 per person, plus NYSCI admission. (NYSCI Members: free.)
Fees for groups are $5 per person, plus group admission fees.
The Art of the Brick is open:
- Monday – Friday, 9:30 am – 5 pm
- Saturday & Sunday, 10 am – 6 pm
Located in Flushing Meadows Corona Park in Queens, NY, NYSCI is easily reached from the Grand Central Parkway, Long Island Expressway and the Bronx-Queens Expressway. Parking is available onsite. Or take the NYC subway: #7 train to 111th Street. For more information about travel options, see the directions section on our Admission page.
RESOURCES AND ADDITIONAL INFO
Read The Press Release
Art of the Brick; Scream. By: Nathan Sawaya