Holy Brick Batman! Artist Transforms Superheroes Into Lego Masterworks
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“I wanted to explore heroes and villains,” says Sawaya, “and was fortunate when DC offered to collaborate.” There will be more than 100 pieces in the exhibition, including several works featuring DC’s Big Three.
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“When you’re working at this scale it takes a little bit of work to get everything to look right,” explains Sawaya. “Wonder Woman’s eyes proved challenging.”
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“The curlicue on Superman’s forehead took a long time to play right and still come across as hair,” says the artist, who has 4 million Lego bricks stored in his studio.
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“This is the first appearance of Superman, ‘Action Comics’ No. 1. I thought, 'Let’s portray him in a way that’s mixing 2D and 3D but in a very iconic, straightforward representation of him.’ Other works are going to be much different, but for this one I wanted to stick with what the comic looked like.”
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The artist doesn’t skimp on the painstaking details, including Superman’s original “S” shield.
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The artist whirls a Wonder Woman sculpture through his studio. Pro tip: Glue holds all the works together. “I’ve been living with these characters in this studio for a year now,” says Sawaya. “I’m excited to see how people are going to react to them. Hopefully it will be a good reaction.”
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“DC has so many great superheroes, but they also have so many great supervillains. This exhibition will be a nice mix,” says Sawaya. Many of the characters on display will be from the upcoming 'Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice’ and 'Suicide Squad,’ including this Joker. “For this giant mask, I wanted to do something that was big, foreboding, and also a bit scary. When this is up on a pedestal dominating a room, this is going to be a powerful piece.”
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“A life-sized human form takes two to three weeks,” says Sawaya, adding that he uses 15,000-20,000 bricks for such a figure. “And if he’s wearing a cape, it takes a whole other week. Capes are tough. The Batman was really challenging. The body type, the positioning, and the cape became a bit of process to get right.”
Marcus Errico
·Editor-in-Chief, Yahoo Entertainment
Superman, Batman, and Wonder Woman — and dozens of their friends (and enemies) — are about to become museum pieces. Nathan Sawaya, the artist whose medium of choice is Lego bricks, has teamed with DC Comics for a traveling exhibition titled "The Art of the Brick: DC Comics." The show will visit art museums worldwide, beginning Nov. 21 with a stop at Sydney’s Powerhouse Museum. We recently visited Sawaya’s studio for a sneak preview before the official unveiling at Comic-Con.