The Art of Brick exhibition was held in Singapore’s Art Science Museum in 2013 – and is currently located at the Zone in Rosebank, Johannesburg SA.

When making the transition from being a corporate lawyer to the world’s leading Lego artist, Nathan Sawaya says he found himself during the process. The Art of Brick exhibition is partially dedicated to telling his life story and what led him to leave the corporate boardrooms to focus on his childhood passion.

The artist encourages each of us to connect with our inner child, a time when we were more creative, open-minded and imaginative than the boring grown-ups we have since become. Nathan admits this transition wasn’t entirely painless and that there was some resistance from the people around him. He says he was able to find out who his real friends were. One can easily imagine how some of his ex-colleagues, a group of presumably smart New York lawyers, reacted to his decision to dump his law career to go play with Lego… “He must be dumb as bricks!” “We were so sad to le’go of him.” “Nathan needed to think inside the box.”

Well, if you ever feel trapped in the hustle of the corporate life, you will certainly find inspiration in Nathan’s salvation story. But beware not to interpret his message as one of a “fight against the machine”. Indeed, rather than turning his back on the corporate world, the artist was smart enough to work with the system. After winning a LegoLand competition back in 2004, he was initially employed directly by the Lego Corporation and shortly thereafter, started his own studio. Before long, Nathan had hired an entire crew of publicists and merchandisers (even his name card is on a Lego brick). For all we know, he even employed a few lawyers of his own! This well-oiled team has now been touring the world for years going from TV studios, to museums, to LegoLands, sharing this simple advice to anyone who cares to listen: Anybody can do it, just quit your job, close your eyes, pick up some Lego bricks and let your imagination guide you… (Oh and don’t forget to put together a great team of promoters to roll out your brand globally!)

While the message and the medium are simple, the work is diverse, complex and touches on the themes of introspection, metamorphosis and illusions. The exhibition never ceases to surprise as you walk from one room to the next and get transported to different moods, scales and subject matters. Nathan told us he prefers to do his work alone at night, and it seems the nighttime has the ability to transform him from a jovial Lego PR man into somewhat of a tortured soul. Indeed some of his best work shows men being disintegrated, getting trapped in a box, or ripping the skin off their faces.

Don’t let these crude images dissuade you from taking kids to see it. The Lego bricks, the pixelated angles, and bright colors take the edge off those representations and immediately transport the audience from the real world of objects to the cerebral and emotional world of the imagination.

Images courtesy of www.brickartist.com © 2003-2012 Nathan Sawaya – All trademarks, servicemarks, and copyrights are property of their respective owners

Text by Max Armbruster

This post was first published on www.themuse.com.sg and has been reposted on Executive Lifestyle with the permission of the author.​