A LEGO® Art Exhibit by Nathan Sawaya

Recently, I went to visit The Art of the Brick exhibit, which opened in Montreal on September 3, 2025. Truthfully, I’ve seen the exhibit before — over a decade ago in New York City, long before I ever started blogging here at True North Bricks. It was inspiring then, and it remains so now. I was happy to see some familiar favourites, but it was equally nice that the sculptures had been switched up a little too.

Classic Creation and Familiar Faces

What was the same? I recognized sculptures like Ascension and many of the recreations of iconic artworks such as Starry Night, The Great Wave, Mona Lisa, and others. The Moai statue is always impressive to see at 75,450 bricks. I also really enjoyed the T. rex skeleton — a perfect blend of artistry and engineering.

New Highlights from Art of the Brick

This time around, there were many more animals. The shark, orca, gorilla, cheetah, giraffe, and others were all new to me. My personal favourite, though, was the life-sized tiger. Tigers have always been my favourite animal. If only Art of the Brick designs were available as instructions (and I had enough brick at home!). The musculature and motion captured using mostly 2×4 bricks is truly something else.

Art Imitating Life – in LEGO® Form

Each animal was also accompanied by a photograph showing the sculpture placed in a natural setting. If you didn’t look closely, you might not even notice it was the LEGO® version in the photo. This reminded me of the real-world objects built from brick I saw ten years ago. Those were still part of the exhibit as well, but they were also paired with photos showing the LEGO® objects blended into real-world scenes.

It’s a really clever art form. In fact, my first visit to the exhibit in New York all those years ago actually inspired much of my Minifigure photography, where I place Minifigures into real-world environments.

Art of the Brick still showing in Downtown Montreal

The Art of the Brick is still running in downtown Montreal if you’re in the area. Currently, the show has no advertised end date. If you have the chance to go, I highly recommend it — it truly inspires you with possibilities. There’s so much you can do with LEGO® as an artistic medium.

Have you seen The Art of the Brick? What did you think? Let me know in the comments or reach out on social media.

Until next time,

–Tom

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