Exhibition - The famous and astonishing LEGO exhibition The Art of the Brick returns to Paris

By Sabine, Paris, Anciennes Galeries Lafayettes, Montparnasse, 17 december 2023

Budding artists, LEGO fans, young and old alike, Nathan Sawaya's The Art of the Brick exhibition will unleash your creativity. Located in the former Galeries Lafayette in Montparnasse, the exhibition features some one hundred works created from one million existing LEGO bricks, to be discovered from December 20, 2023.

This traveling exhibition has already been seen by 2 million visitors worldwide, from New York to Shanghai, from Milan to Brussels. Paris is privileged to welcome it back. It will delight young and old alike, as it was conceived as an entertaining family event by artist Nathan Sawaya: "this exhibition appeals to the child in all of us, while illuminating sophisticated and complex concepts."  

This artist has an unusual background. He started playing with LEGOs at an early age.  After becoming a corporate lawyer, he gradually realized that he was more at home sitting on the floor creating sculptures with the bricks than in his job. Following the success of his website showcasing his creations, he took the risk of leaving everything behind to devote himself fully to the Art of Brick. Today, Nathan Sawaya owns over 10 million of these bricks in his artist studios in New York and Los Angeles. His most famous work, "Yellow", depicts a man whose open chest lets LEGO bricks escape, a metaphor for his evolution from lawyer to artist. 

The exhibition begins with a short introductory film in which Nathan Sawaya explains his career and his work. Visitors then enter the artist's studio. They then discover the portrait gallery. A tribute to the Old Masters introduces children to the history of art, with sculptures such as Rodin's The Thinker, Michelangelo's David, the Sphinx, and paintings like Van Gogh's Starry Night, Hokusai's Wave and Munch's Scream. Some paintings are reconstructed in 3D. Characters take shape and stand out from the background. 

The artist's emblematic works are present, such as the Parthenon, the Swimmer, accompanied by its caption "Swim against the current, follow your own path! Find the courage within yourself! One room deals with the human condition, with more abstract works. The gigantic 6-metre-long T-Rex will delight children. 

The Paris exhibition features new works created in collaboration with photographer Andrei Duman. Lungs, heart, intestine - these human organs are reconstituted using LEGO bricks, symbolizing our cells as they assemble to form an organ through the process of organogenesis. The artists hope that this visual concept will help to highlight the fragility of the human body and encourage visitors to take care of it. 

At the end of the exhibition, a creative workshop makes thousands of bricks available to young and old alike. It's your turn to play!

Check out our photos on our official Flickr account

General information : 
Reservations: https://theartofthebrickexpo.com/paris/ 
Date : from December 20, 2023 
Prices : Adults: from 16.90 euros / Children: from 12.90 euros (free admission for children under 4) 
Address: : Les Galeries Montparnasse - 22 rue du Départ, 75015 Paris 
Metro: Métro Montparnasse-Bienvenüe (Lines 4, 6, 12 and 13) 
Duration: Approx. 1 hour 
Opening hours : Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday from 10am to 7pm (last entry at 6pm) , Friday and Saturday from 10am to 8:30pm (last entry at 7:30pm) 
Access: The exhibition is accessible to people with reduced mobility.

Photos and video : Sabine