Legotastic at The Art of Brick

This month sees the arrival of the Art of Brick Exhibition, at East London’s trendy Truman’s Brewery.

Nathan Sawaya, a ex corporate lawyer, turned self proclaimed artist, of plastic interlocking bricks, aka Lego. Nathan was hooked after being given a Lego set, as a christmas present from his grandparents when he was five years old. At ten he made his first major Lego build, of a dog after his parents refused to buy him a pet.

The exhibition starts with a video short of Nathan explaining his journey to Lego greatness. It took a 4,188 hours to build over 75 works of art on show in the exhibition.

Then you are left to wander through a number of interlocking rooms each with a different theme, including replica’s of iconic classical art pieces, including Michael Angelo’s David (16,349 bricks ) to Venus de Milo (18,483 bricks ). The Human Condition and Human Expressions rooms, contain Nathan’s original artwork featuring many sculptures involving the human form. There’s even a Brit room, to mark the sculptor’s first exhibition in London. Inspired by Britain, there’s a tribute to The Beatles as well as a red telephone box, even One Direction makes an appearance. The largest piece of the exhibition is the 80,000 brick and 6 foot long TRex. The highlight for me, was the eerie dimly lit Swimmer Room, containing a single sculpture of a lone swimmer mounted on a glass table.