LEGO Creations: The Art of the Brick at Dallas’ Perot

Ah, LEGO bricks. Those fun things we played with as children, building forts and creating our own little world. Whether you just had a small bucket or a whole city set, it was probably one of your favorite childhood toys. As we grew up, however, that interest faded away– well for most of us, that is. For artist Nathan Sawaya, it’s a way of life and his method of expressing creativity. Sawaya builds different art pieces using nothing but these toy bricks, which are exhibited all over the world in The Art of the Brick. North Texas can now see these creations, with the arrival of the exhibition to the Perot Museum of Nature and Science.



The entrance to The Art of the Brick.

Upon entering the exhibition hall, the dimly-lit room set the stage and mood – just like that of visiting an art gallery. I was ready to experience what CNN listed as one of the world’s must-see exhibitions.





Famous paintings, like the Mona Lisa, are replicated. Looking at it, I couldn’t help but wonder how long it took Sawaya to put everything together. I imagine just finding all the different colors needed for each piece was quite the challenge.



One of the most famous paintings in the world, now re-created with over four thousand bricks.

From Norwegian paintings to the art of the Far East, numerous cultures are covered in his masterpieces.



There’s The Great Wave off Kanagawa with The Starry Night in the distance.





The Art of the Brick also has numerous pieces original to Sawaya, created as a form of symbolic art. One design visualized overcoming an obstacle. Another symbolized being trapped(whether mentally or physically). Sawaya did an outstanding job with the expression of these common themes in life using an unconventional medium.



The forces that hold us back from our goals and dreams are symbolized here.

How does it feel to be trapped? This is

Sawaya’s depiction.

Some of the other creations were just outright fun, replicating objects found in everyday life. One section had various paintings, each with an object on there seemingly made from toy bricks. The goal is to locate the actual LEGO creation of said object, placed somewhere in the exhibition hall.

A pair of flip flops.

There’s one item made out of LEGOs in each of these paintings that you’ll want to find somewhere in this gallery.

Even a LEGO sand bucket was created. Like the other masterpieces I saw, this 3-D design looked very cool and you could tell great attention to detail was given.



Towards the end of the exhibition, I saw perhaps the most stunning piece of them all, this T.rex. It is made of a whopping 80,020 bricks and took Sawaya a whole summer to build.



This exhibition wouldn’t be complete without a dinosaur completely made out of LEGO bricks!

The last area before exiting is where young designers can channel their inner LEGO creativity skills and build a design of their own. This play space with different stations provides a fun place for some hand-on time.



At the Music Box station, different combinations of LEGOs makes different sounds when slid underneath the white box.

In conclusion, The Art of the Brick was one amazing exhibition that showed how a simple object can be used to create extraordinary masterpieces. Seeing everything took me around 30 minutes. However, admission also includes access to the four floors of general exhibition halls, so it’s easy to spend a few hours here. If you are looking for a spot in the Metroplex that’s both cool and unique, head over to the Perot to check out this unconventional art gallery!

One of the banners advertising The Art of the Brick outside the museum entrance.

The Art of the Brick runs until August 18th. Tickets can be purchased online at www.perotmuseum.org.

