1. 1 4 M A N S PA C E M A G A Z I N E I N S I D E T H E W O R L D ’ S B E S T G A R A G E S , S H E D S A N D M A N C AV E S
A
former corporate lawyer
from New York City, Nathan
Sawaya quit this lucrative
occupation to pursue a career as a full
time artist. But what makes his career
change even more unlikely is the
medium Nathan chose to work with –
those ubiquitous plastic bricks almost
all of us played with as kids – Lego.
“The transition happened
gradually,” Nathan tells. “I
would come home after a long day
and I would need some sort of outlet.
So from time to time I would do
something creative – sometimes it
was drawing, painting or writing and
sometimes sculpting.”
One night Nathan got the idea in
his head to try and build a large scale
sculpture using only Lego bricks. So
he hauled out some old Lego he’d
had since childhood and began to
experiment by trying to recreate
the things he saw in and around his
apartment.
Over time the sculptures grew
larger and larger until Nathan
decided to put a website together: a
kind of virtual gallery to share what
he was working on.
RIGHT: Nathan
Sawaya’s fascination
for the popular plastic
bricks has earned
him plaudits from art
critics and Lego fans
alike.
“People really took to it and I
started getting commission requests
from folks all over. So I would spend
long days at the law firm and then
come home at night and have long
nights making Lego artwork. It was
when my website crashed from too
many hits that I decided it was time
to make a change, and I left the
practice of law to go and play with
toys full time,” Nathan says.
Looking at Nathan’s creations
though, it’s plain to see that there
is a whole lot more going on than
mere child’s play. The mind-blowing
complexity and scale of his works
require detailed planning and no
small amount of patience.
“I had Lego bricks growing up as
so many kids do and they were a
great construction toy. My parents
were always encouraging creativity
so a toy like Lego was perfect. But
it was rediscovering the toy as an
artistic medium later in life that really
allowed me to take it in a whole new
direction.
“When I’m working on specific
sculptures, like for my new exhibition
that’s coming to the Sydney
Powerhouse Museum based around
DC comics, I have to have a pretty
good idea in my mind of how the
sculpture is going to come together
before I put down that first brick.
There’s a real difference from a
process point of view. Now there’s
more planning, more to figure out.
I also glue the bricks together as I
go these days so you need to have a
clear idea of where you’re going.”
Nathan now works from (and lives
between) two sizable studios in Los
Angeles and New York that he keeps
stocked with around five million
bricks each. These are all organised
Nathan Sawaya’s sculptures have been making quite a stir of late.
Revered by art critics and pop culture enthusiasts alike, and with multiple
exhibitions all over the globe, he’s been credited as being the first artist to
take Lego to the art world. Jacob Harris explains.

3. 1 6 M A N S PA C E M A G A Z I N E I N S I D E T H E W O R L D ’ S B E S T G A R A G E S , S H E D S A N D M A N C AV E S

4. I N S I D E T H E W O R L D ’ S B E S T G A R A G E S , S H E D S A N D M A N C AV E S M A N S PA C E M A G A Z I N E 1 7
by size, shape and colour so he knows
exactly where to go when he needs a
specific brick – after all, when you’re
working on projects of this scale, that
mixed bag of bricks you had as a kid
isn’t quite going to cut it!
“It’s like walking in to a rainbow,”
Nathan says. “There are lines and
lines of colour filling a whole lot of
different shelves. It’s a fun place to
work.”
The way Nathan describes it
does make it sound like a lot of fun,
but making large sculptures out of
thousands upon thousands of very
small bricks isn’t always going to be
a walk in the park. He tells me a life-
size human form will take around 2-3
weeks to complete and uses 15,000-
20,000 bricks; an undertaking that
would stretch the limits of patience
for most of us.
For Nathan though it’s calming,
even therapeutic, and he’s happy to
sit in the studio for as long as it takes.
“I have been told I go into a
bit of a trance when I’m working.
I can sit for hours just plugging
away at something. For me to just
click away, brick after brick, in the
studio with my music going is a
great way to spend my day. It’s a
completely different environment
from practicing law in an office with
people coming in and out all day
long.
“What I’m doing now is so much
more enjoyable and in tune with
what I want to do with my life -
just sitting in the art studio creating
something with my hands.”
Even when things go
wrong Nathan is happy to resolutely
break out the hammer and chisel
and start chipping away if things
don’t look quite right; as far as he’s
concerned it’s all just part of the
process. Many would argue that it’s
this tenacity, along with the obvious
skill involved that sees his career go
from strength to strength. But the
artist attributes at least some of this
success to his chosen medium.
“To be honest, I thought my first
exhibition was also going to be my
last. It was a solo show, of just a few
pieces, and I really didn’t expect
that much would come of it. But
when the exhibition opened, we got
an overwhelming response – over
2 thirds of the museum’s annual
ABOVE & LEFT:
Nathan’s latest
exhibition,The Art of
the Brick: DC Comics,
will open at the
Sydney Powerhouse
Museum on November
21.

5. 1 8 M A N S PA C E M A G A Z I N E I N S I D E T H E W O R L D ’ S B E S T G A R A G E S , S H E D S A N D M A N C AV E S
Contact:
Nathan Sawaya
www.nathansawaya.com/
visitors in the six weeks the show was
open – so many people connected
with the art immediately and I think
that’s a testament to Lego being a
universal toy that makes the art very
accessible,” Nathan says.
After this initial success Nathan
started touring the exhibition. In
time, this expanded into multiple
exhibitions and has now become a
global touring company. Fortunately,
the lifestyle that comes with this
kind of artistic success only serves to
inspire Nathan further.
“Inspiration can come from
anywhere or anything, but having
multiple exhibitions on tour all over
the globe is a real benefit because I
get to travel around the world. I go
to different countries, meet different
people, experience different cultures
and use those as resources for
inspiration. I carry a little sketch pad
with me wherever I go and I’m always
jotting down different ideas.”
Nathan is constantly trying to
push the envelope with what can
be done with Lego, and it has to be
said he’s been quite successful in
this endeavour. One of the recent
examples of this is his collaboration
with Australian hyper-realistic
photographer Dean West, which
involved integrating Nathan’s Lego
sculptures into Dean’s photography.
“The works are a commentary
on the construction of identity.
When you look at the construction
of the sculptures that have been
integrated into the photography
they do have a pixelated, digital look
to them which works seamlessly
into his photography. So that was
an opportunity to take Lego in a
different direction, and I want to
keep doing that, keep trying different
things.”
The Art of the Brick: DC Comics
will open at the Sydney Powerhouse
Museum on November 21.
ABOVE: A life-size
human form takes
Nathan 2-3 weeks to
complete and uses
15,000-20,000.
Icarryalittle sketchpadwithmewhereverIgo
andI’malwaysjottingdowndifferentideas.