Tag Archives: Art

Some LEGO builders elevate the form to fine art in its own right, while others enjoy reproducing famous works of art with the brick. Find beautiful and thought-provoking LEGO artwork right here.

I object, you object, we all object. But not to Object-8

The line between art and craftsmanship is a tricky one to walk. I know I’ve gotten into a few deep (and sometimes tense) conversions with my friends about the distinction. Things get even trickier when you apply that sort of judgment call to LEGO creations. I think, though, that most would agree that Mitsuru Nikiado‘s works fall on the side of “art.” Not only is Object-8 titled like something you’d see in a gallery show, it looks like it’s right at home in a sculpture garden. In contrasting red and grey, Mitsuru has created a dynamic image of destruction.

That said, there’s still a lot of craftsmanship to appreciate. As you can see from this alternate angle, every bit of the exploding wall is connected. Building on the techniques in Object-5, modified 1×1 round plates and open-stud connectors combine to allow for some pretty crazy angles.

I recommend checking out Mitsuru’s photostream to see the other Objects in this series. (Object-4 is a personal favorite.)

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What do paint buckets and pirates have in common?

Well, what do they have in common? Absolutely nothing! Sorry to disappoint you, but this is really more of an abstract art challenged driven by a contest to build a LEGO creation in a single color. Builder Markus Rollbühler cleverly builds a gravity-defying paint bucket and a tiny pirate ship sailing off the edges of spilt paint. So, since we’re on the topic, what’s a pirate’s favorite color? For sure it’s not yellow, but.. if you’ve not gotten it yet, it’s ARR-inge.

A meme has fallen into art in LEGO City!

We have featured artistic builds by the enigmatic builder why.not? on the Brothers Brick before. Her builds tend to focus on horror and mystery with an emotional sub-theme. The latest one mostly falls into these categories, but… A man has fallen into the river in LEGO City! Now I know it might be a coincidence, but this meme is huge right now. If this is a commentary on how powerless and alone a single person feels in the city, it makes for a great art piece. But if this is a full-effort build dedicated to a LEGO meme, I respect it too. Because memes are the purest form of contemporary art.

The build is presented to be open to interpretation and is in its essence a full LEGO scene of a minifig falling off a bridge. The focus seems to be on the aforementioned bridge, as it is the only element that is not monochromatic. The forced perspective is achieved with different scales of buildings, a small bridge in the background and a tapering curved river bank. I like the cold colours used that evoke a depressing and suffocating city atmosphere, but I wonder if it would not look better with a vivid coloured minifig, directing the attention immediately to itself.

Building LEGO Masters: Exclusive interview with Brick Artist Nathan Sawaya [News]

Continuing our series of behind-the-scenes articles about LEGO Masters, we chatted with Brick Artist Nathan Sawaya in his California studio about how he built all the props for the show, what kind of deadlines he faced, and working with LEGO as a creative medium.

The first half of our interview (conducted jointly with Brickset) focuses on his work with LEGO Masters and serving as their “brick artist in residence.” The second half discusses his personal views on LEGO as a whole, his traveling LEGO installation “Art of the Brick,” and how he went from an NYC lawyer to an LA artist.

Read our interview with LEGO Masters brick artist in residence Nathan Sawaya

Watch out for splinters – hands on with LEGO Originals 853967 Wooden Minifigure [Review]

A surprise announcement, a pop-up LEGO art gallery launch in London, and the start of a new line of LEGO products — 853967 Wooden Minifigure has had quite the introduction to the world. We’re not sure we’d call this a “set” as such, although it does feature a handful of regular LEGO bricks as well as the titular 20cm tall oak figurine. LEGO themselves describe the figurine as a “blank canvas” for personalisation and creative decoration. Whatever you want to call it, the wooden figure is available from Nov. 3, 2019, for VIP members, and Nov. 8 for everyone. It can be purchased from the LEGO Shop online for US $119.99 | CAN 154.99 | UK £109.99.

(EDIT: The wooden figure is also available from LEGO in bundles including a discount of up to $30 US when combined with various other LEGO products, including one 1,500-piece Classic set.)

Read our hands-on review of LEGO 853967 Wooden Minifigure

LEGO Originals – gallery opening and interview with Sine Klitgaard Møller, LEGO Design Director [News]

Seven Dials is a small area of London, squeezed in between the city’s theatre district and the nightlife of Soho. It’s one of the cool parts of town, narrow streets stuffed full of quirky shops and art galleries. One of these galleries is playing temporary host to a new LEGO launch — the Limited Edition large-scale wooden minifigure, the first release in the new LEGO Originals line, and we attended the gallery’s opening this morning. We also had a chance to sit down with the project’s design director for an interview.

Fans were invited to register for a timeslot to visit the gallery through the LEGO VIP loyalty programme, and the first session was booked up almost immediately. Although guaranteed admission, these first visitors still arrived early, and there was a good-sized queue well in advance of the official opening time. A further “standby queue” had also formed — people hoping some of those registered to attend might not show up. LEGO’s PR proved to be on-point, with the general air of excitement wafting off the line of adult fans and kids prompting photos and questions from passers-by.

Using LEGO to show the inner workings of fear and anxiety

It might be an accurate statement to say that Jason Allemann is having the best month ever. First he was our keynote speaker at BrickCon, where he also designed the commemorative model that we featured here. And now he…or rather JK Brickworks, has completed a series with this model. Why the distinction? Jason is merely the “J” half of JK Brickworks. “K” stands for Kristal and she is the driving force behind this model that is the final part of a trio of sculptures that explore the human mind. The first model, which can be seen at The LEGO House in Billund, explores the mind of an artist. The second sculpture explores the mind of an engineer. This third sculpture, however, might be the most therapeutic for a lot of us. It delves deep and gives us a peek inside a tortured mind.

Click here to delve deeper.

The concrete results of artistic abstraction

When building with LEGO bricks, most people opt for recreating something that mirrors our experiences. We draw inspiration from the real world — maybe we look to movies, literature, or some other media, but our creations look like things that exist…or could possibly exist…in our reality. What, then, should we make of the artistic abstractions of Crimso Giger? Even though they exist as physical models, these spaces are like nothing we’d expect to encounter. Crimso has combined geometric abstraction with sculpture, leading us into an unfamiliar world without giving us a roadmap.
Sure, you can try and make sense of these images by trying to force some sort of logic onto them. Take Abstract – Yellow Grey Black, for example. The choice of colors and shapes reminds me of the interior of a computer, or a cityscape that’s been bent like a scene from Inception or Doctor Strange. But that’s just my perspective – maybe this is something else entirely.

Abstract – White Black Red makes me think of gaming. The red and black tiles seem to form a checkerboard, and the black and white groupings remind me of backgammon boards and dice. But what is that construction in the center? Is the “x” shape in the 1x6x5 rectangular girder a call out to Tic-Tac-Toe? Have I completely missed the point? I just don’t know!

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My art supplies never looked so neat

When I saw this image I thought, “Now, why am I seeing ads for neat art supply boxes when the ad algorithms should already know I like to keep my art supplies scattered haphazardly in a six-drawer rolling cabinet?” Then it occurred to me, this wasn’t an ad but rather a LEGO render by a builder called Vant. There’s a certain danger to building this realistically and that is that a finely crafted creation like this one could be passed up by writers like us thinking it may be an ad or some other non-LEGO related thing. Upon closer inspection, what looked like silver corner tiles clued me in that what I was looking at was LEGO.

The whole shebang folds neatly into this handsome “wooden” case. The clasps, handle, even the round silver “feet” are particularly inspired. While this is a render, Vant tells us he is currently building this in actual brick and is part of a larger project that will be…unfolding (See what I did there?) in his Flickr photostream soon. When I see these in the store, I marvel at how neat and tidy other artists, who are not me, might be.

Tube or not tube

As usual, the good folks over at New Elementary are up to hijinks related to new and interesting LEGO pieces, with a stable of talented builders exploring some of the ways fans can use the parts. One such recent exploration was undertaken by Pistash and involved a variety of new coral-colored elements. He’s taken the color exploration quite literally, turning the bubblegum-colored bits into a squirt of paint, complete with a cool mosaic on the side of the container. Fittingly, the splash at the bottom is a large 14-tooth splat gear.

Beautiful city built in colour

Who built this city? He built this city! He built this city of bricks and plaaaaaaaates! Pardon the parodied lyrics, but Paul Hetherington’s latest masterpiece makes me want to rock out. Like many of Paul’s previous works, this creation is pleasing both when viewed as a whole and when you zoom in to view the details.

Viewed from a distance, it really does look like a city being built by a giant robot. Look closely though, and you’ll see fun scenes playing out, along with Paul’s trademark checkerboard patterns, and a façade inspired by Piet Mondrian’s Composition with Red Blue and Yellow. The colour combinations are my favourite aspect here. While many LEGO cities and towns are rife with greys, browns, and tans, Paul ignores those and leans hard into bright colours in complementary shades, creating yet another beautiful work of art.

What exactly am I looking at?

I’m always impressed when someone builds something with LEGO bricks that doesn’t have a strong tie to an established theme or building style. It takes a special kind of eye to look beyond the mundane, and builder why.not? has that vision. Or they had a vision. Or maybe just a very bad dream. Whatever the source, they have brought to us an unsettling image indeed.
The central eye is built from 1×2 and 1×4 plates, using subtle color variation in light blue, tan, and blue grey to create a convincing iris against a white brick background.

Eyelashes are constructed from minifigure hands clipped to the modified plates and tiles that create a smooth curve to the eyelid. There’s even a curved brick to represent the tear duct.
Additional creepy details include an abundance of Technic (eye)ball joints, a floating maw made of teeth and quarter-round tiles, and dangling red tentacles. The heart uses exotic elements like a sand blue dinosaur tail and medium lavender flexible hose. There’s even a dragon wing hidden in the blood(?) in the upper right.

I’m not sure what this piece says to me. But I’m kind of glad it can’t talk. I doubt I’d want to hear the messsage it brings.