The Art Of The Brick Opens February 28

The Art of the Brick, a captivating exhibition featuring more than 100 works of art created from over one million LEGO bricks by contemporary artist Nathan Sawaya, opens February 28, 2020 at the California Science Center. It comprises the world’s largest display of LEGO art.

“As they view this exhibit, people of all ages will discover how small bricks can be used to create popular and imaginative works of art, test science principles, and build engineering marvels,” says California Science Center President Jeff Rudolph.

Sawaya, through his devotion to spatial perfection, transforms LEGO bricks into thought-provoking sculptures, elevating the toy to the realm of contemporary art. The collection features original pieces as well as re-imagined versions of some of the world’s most famous art masterpieces such as Michelangelo’s David, Van Gogh’s Starry Night and Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. In addition, Sawaya created a 20-foot Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton (comprised of over 80,000 LEGO bricks) that guests will be able to walk under and come face-to-face with a giant LEGO skull.  

Also on display at the Science Center will be the fan favorite, Yellow, a life-size sculpture of a man ripping his chest open with thousands of yellow LEGO bricks cascading from the cavity. In addition, “The Art of the Brick takes LEGO somewhere you wouldn’t expect and shows you things you have never seen before,” said artist Sawaya.  “The goal with this collection of art is to demonstrate the potential of imagination and the power of creativity.” 

Accompanying The Art of the Brick will be an interactive exhibit The Science of the Brick that features nine activity stations for guests to design and solve LEGO brick building challenges including:

• Art & Architecture – Visitors are challenged to observe photos of famous buildings and structures and recreate them with LEGO bricks.

• Hidden Hands – Guests can explore the science practice of mental mapping to problem solve by building a mystery object inside a box using only their sense of touch.

• Describe It – To practice the skill of communicating findings, one person builds a simple object out-of-view and describes it to a partner who then tries build the same object using only the description.

• The Floor is Lava – Guests can build a LEGO bridge between two raised platforms.

• Six Bricks – Visitors test their problem-solving abilities by discovering how many different things they can build using only six LEGO Duplo bricks.

• LEGO Drag Race – Guests can test which car design is fastest on a straight ramp and then on a second enhanced course, test the same car designs on various inclines.

• Tilt Maze – Participants can create a maze on a tilt table for a wooden ball to navigate through while testing the science principles of center-of-mass, momentum, and inertia.

• LEGO Music Box – Guests use a LEGO version of staff paper to place colored LEGOs as musical notes. A camera will then photograph the “song” and image processing algorithms will turn the visual representation into music.

• Free Play – Guests can use their imaginations in the free play area to make and create with bins of LEGOs and Duplo bricks.

Ticket prices range from $12.75 to $19.95. Discounts are available for members, students, seniors and groups. Groups of 15 or more may inquire about group reservations by calling 213-744-2019. General tickets will go on sale January 6, 2020. For more information visit https://californiasciencecenter.org