Nathan Sawaya (born July 10, 1973), is an artist who builds custom three-dimensional models and large-scale mosaics from popular everyday items and standard Lego toy bricks. His unique art creations are commissioned by companies, charities, individuals, museums and galleries.
Born in Colville, Washington and raised in Veneta, Oregon, Sawaya attended New York University, where he earned bachelors and law degrees, eventually practicing law at the firm Winston & Strawn.
He first came to national attention in 2004, when he won a nationwide search for a professional Lego Master Model Builder.[1]
After working for the Lego company for six months, he branched off and opened his own art studio in New York and is officially recognized by The Lego Group as a Lego Certified Professional.[2]
He had his first solo art exhibit in the Spring of 2007 at the Lancaster Museum of Art. "The Art of the Brick" is the first major museum exhibition in the U.S. to focus exclusively on the use of Lego building blocks as an art medium.
In addition, his work is also in collections including:
Nathan had his first exhibition in the Southern Hemisphere at Federation Square in Melbourne, Australia in June 2011. This exhibition is now travelling around Australia and is due to open in Sydney, Australia at the Sydney Town Hall on December 12th 2011.
Since 2000, Sawaya has created some of the most recognizable LEGO art sculptures, including a 7-foot (2.1 m)-long replica of the Brooklyn Bridge, a life-size tyrannosaurus rex, a 6-foot (1.8 m)-tall Han Solo frozen in carbonite, Curious George, and models of Alfred Hitchcock and Lindsay Lohan. Others include a huge black-and-white self portrait and a gigantic Monopoly box.
Sawaya has also been featured on multiple media outlets including The Colbert Report, where he presented Stephen Colbert with a life size replica of Stephen Colbert; CBS’s The Late Show with David Letterman; NBC’s Today Show; MSNBC’s Countdown with Keith Olbermann; ESPN’s Cold Pizza; ABC’S Jimmy Kimmel Live; Newsweek; the Los Angeles Times; Hollywood Reporter; CNN; and Newsday. In April 2009, he was a consultant on Mythbusters.