View the world, plus a little of Pittsburgh, in Legos

Artist employs the toy bricks as his medium

When he was 10, Nathan Sawaya asked his parents for a dog.

They said no. But he was also an avid Lego fan.

“So, I tore my Lego city down and used the bricks to build myself a life-size dog,” he said. “It was one of those ‘ah-ha’ moments.”

He didn’t know it then, but Mr. Sawaya, living in a small town in Oregon, was on to something much bigger than defying his parents through his art.

Now 44, Mr. Sawaya was in Pittsburgh on Friday to give reporters a preview of his one-man show, “The Art of the Brick,” which opens Saturday in the Carnegie Science Center’s new addition, the PPG Science Pavilion. A separate admission price is being charged for the exhibit, with a discount for members, so visitors can see the Lego art without visiting the main science center.

The exhibit features 100 of Mr. Sawaya’s hand-built creations, which range from interpretations of classic painted and sculpted masterpieces — Da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” and Van Gogh’s “Starry Night” among them — to novel studies of the human form.

His most famous piece, “Yellow,” of a torso being pulled open, typically gets the most comments. There’s also the avant-garde, particularly the last exhibit, which combines photography with Mr. Sawaya’s Lego art.

If you haven’t heard of him or might already be dismissing his art because he uses children’s toys as his medium, you might be interested to know that the Pittsburgh exhibit — which runs through Jan. 7— is one of five of “The Art of the Brick” exhibits displayed around the world. The others are in Paris; Ottawa, Ontario; Minsk, Belarus; and Linkoping, Sweden.

Since his first exhibition in 2007, he has had exhibits in 100 cities in 24 countries and on six continents.

So it was no exaggeration for science center co-director Ron Bailey to introduce Mr. Sawaya as the

“world-renowned contemporary artist Nathan Sawaya.”

Dozens of articles have been written about how he went from a guy who just couldn’t leave his love of Legos behind, to corporate lawyer, to full-time artist by the time he was 31, to artistic acclaim that often compares him to his inspiration, American conceptual sculptor Tom Friedman, or — in a Pittsburgh connection — Andy Warhol because of his use of an everyday item to compose his art.

In the seven-gallery exhibit, visitors can also see his story play out through his art.

There are his early pieces of a life-size apple and then a basketball-sized apple, where he was just working out what he could do with Legos.

Then there are Lego portraits of his “muse,” his wife, Courtney Simmons.

The most telling, though, may be an interpretive work called “Grasp” of a standing, bright red human figure trying to walk away from a series of gray hands emanating from a wall behind.

During a tour for reporters and at least one young Lego fan, Mr. Sawaya was happy to explain its meaning.

He said when he began telling friends and colleagues when he was 31 that he was leaving corporate law to work full time in Lego art — something he ensured would be a serious move by letting his law license lapse — he got a lot of pushback and negativity about his decision.

“So this sculpture is really about that negativity and people holding you back,” he said.

Mr. Sawaya made one piece in the exhibit that is specifically for Pittsburgh. Having done research on the city’s history and culture, he said, “I realized how important bridges were to Pittsburgh. And realized how important the Three Sister bridges were in particular.”

The sculpture, which required more than 12,000 Lego bricks, is titled “Perspective on Three Sisters Bridges” and uses the familiar frames of the yellowpainted Roberto Clemente (Sixth Street), Andy Warhol (Seventh Street) and Rachel Carson (Ninth Street) bridges that link Downtown and the North Side.

Another defining work in the exhibit was completed after his first exhibit success. He saw entire families coming to view it, and he said he decided he wanted to “give back” to those early fans, particularly the younger ones.

“I thought, ‘What do kids like?’ Well, dinosaurs, of course,” he said.

He spent three months sculpting a 20-foot T.rex with more than 80,000 bricks that he says largely accomplishes its mission for kids.

Ann Metzger, the science center’s co-director, said one of the major reasons that the science center sought Mr. Sawaya to be the first exhibitor in the new pavilion was because “his work engages both young and old.”

To find out how it played with the young set, this reporter brought his son, Declan, 12, a lifelong Lego builder himself.

The familiar artworks done in Lego drew him in.

“Oh, that’s ‘Starry Night’ by Van Gogh,” he said when he turned into the first gallery. “That’s cool.”

And the 75,000-brick, 8foot-tall, life-size Easter Island replica was an eyecatcher for the seventhgrader.

“Mr. Easter Island,” he exclaimed. “That’s a lot of Legos.”

But what was surprising was that the more adultthemed works also resonated.

“Yellow” and “Grasp” were his favorites, maybe befitting a boy about to enter his teenage years, as much with their design as their message — “Because they have more meaning than the others.”

“Grasp” stuck with Declan immediately.

“I like this because the arms are wrapping around him. It shows they’re trying to pull him in, telling him, ‘Don’t do it,’” he said. “I get that.”

All Lego and art fans will have to see it for themselves to draw their own conclusions.

Tickets to visit only “The Art of the Brick” are $19.95 for adults and $15.95 for age 12 and younger. They are discounted to $12.95 for adults and $10.95 for age 12 and younger with the purchase of general admission tickets to the science center. Members get free admission to the science center and pay $11.95 for adults and $9.95 for age 12 adn younger for “The Art of the Brick.” Details: http:// www.carnegiesciencecenter.