Art of the Brick: DC Super Heroes

An inspiringly creative exhibition

By Michael Wilson

March 6^th, 2017

A brilliant show

I like LEGO, I like super heroes and I loved Nathan Sawaya's original show Art of The Brick. Taking this into account, it was an easy decision to head down to see his latest show 'DC Super Heroes' and I'm so glad I did.

This is Nathan's most iconic piece, which has been 'defaced' by the Joker for this show

Cyborgs broken body before his robotic transformation

The beauty of abstract

Of course the work that goes into each piece is really impressive, but the main thing I took from the show was the idea of conveying meaning with the least amount of detail possible. LEGO really pushes people to be creative and boil down each sculpture to the important details.

The following piece really brings this idea home. Just rows of coloured bricks, but I'm betting most of you who are familiar with DC heroes know exactly who each tube represents.

Thousands of bricks and a painstaking amount of hours goes into making each piece. There's also a hell of a lot of thought, which goes into every sculpture. Reading the idea behind each piece added an extra level of appreciation. There's a piece where Batman is building himself out of LEGO because he's the only hero who was self made and not given the gift of powers (besides billions of Dollars).

Another piece depicts Bizarro (Superman's mirror image) looking in the mirror to see Superman looking back at him.

Abstraction on another level. LEGO cubism

Just blue eyes and a curl of hair on the forehead. No more needed, you know who this is

Don't forget the villains

Every hero needs a villain to push them to greater heights and there were some brilliant sculptures showing them to their villainous best. Everyone's favourite DC villain, The Joker, certainly stole the show with his huge face looking particularly disturbing.

Inspired to be creative

The main message of the show is that anyone can be heroic as long as they have the right values and the right attitude. Watching the children react to their favourite heroes being brought to life with the favourite toy was a real joy. Of course there were a few mindless drones (most of the adults) who were just there to have their photos taken next to the sculptures, but on the whole it was an inspiring event.

At the end of the exhibit, there are a few pools of LEGO bricks for people to be creative with. Looking at the amount of children who had jumped at the chance and were trying to make things they had seen in the show, the message had obviously got through to them :-)