Dubai: Nathan Sawaya, 40, started playing with Lego bricks as a child, but unlike most of us, never stopped. His sculptures are life-size and made out of hundreds of thousands of tiny Lego bricks. In a piece named Yellow, Sawaya has created a sculpture of a man opening his chest, with tiny Lego bricks falling out. In another, called Think, tiny Lego men are climbing out the top of a man’s head. Other pieces, however, are just playful and fun, such as a life-size bumble bee and yellow bear. The massive sculptures typically are made of 15,000 to 25,000 Lego bricks.
Sawaya with one of his sculptures (brickartist.com)One of Sawaya's sculptures (brickartist.com)
Sawaya, who trained as a lawyer, said that he began making the Lego brick sculptures as a stress reliever during his time off when he was a corporate attorney in New York. He created a website — brickartist.com — and did his first show in 2007. Since then, he’s displayed his work around the world and been featured on The Today Show, Late Night with David Letterman and the Colbert Report.
He spends more than $100,000 (Dh367,320) yearly buying Lego bricks and has more than 1.5 million pieces in his New York studio, sometimes spending weeks on a sculpture.
Sawaya with another of his creations (brickartist.com)
“It’s very therapeutic to just sit and work hours at a time,” Sawaya says. “I just put on music, and to me, it’s part of the process. I go into it knowing that it’s going to take time.”
His exhibits have been on display in New York, across the US and the UK.
