'The Art of the Brick' exhibition includes over 80 art sculptures made from more than one million Lego bricks
Nathan Sawaya quit his job as a corporate lawyer in 2001 to return to his boyhood obsession – making things out of Lego.
He first introduced Lego sculptures to the art world in 2007 and has since staged exhibitions in North America, Asia, Australia and Europe.
At the centre of the exhibit is Sawaya's 'yellow' – his most famous piece made from 11,014 yellow bricks.
"Well this is 'The Art of the Brick' and it has over 80 sculptures that I've created entirely out of Lego bricks," said Mr Sawaya.
The US sculptor was first given a Lego set as a Christmas present from his grandparents, when he was five-years-old.
But it was at the age of 10 that he decided to create his first proper sculpture. It was a dog made entirely of Lego because his parents said the family could not get a real one.
"I had sculpted out of different things in my career and one day I just thought, 'Could I make large-scale sculpture using just Lego bricks?" he said.
"So I experimented and eventually found that there was really something to this and I have created a whole art career using Lego bricks as my medium."
"I like using this Lego brick as a medium because it makes the art very accessible," he said.
"Everyone can relate to the art because they're familiar with it as a toy, they've played with it, their kids have it. So it allows the art to be more relatable."
It took a combined 4,188 hours to build over 75 works of art on show in the exhibition.
The sculptor says it sometimes takes weeks to create a full-scale piece and that means hours locked away in his studio.
"You do need a bit of patience for this job," he said.
"It takes weeks to complete a full-sized sculpture. So there are times when you just have to power through. I spend full days in the art studio, eight, 10 hours – twelve hours sometimes – just plugging away brick by brick."
To mark the sculptor's first exhibition in London, the collection also includes numerous pieces inspired by Britain.
There is a Lego brick tribute to The Beatles and a red telephone box made from 11,575 bricks.
"So this is my first exhibition in London – very excited – it's the first time I've been to London so I wanted to do some iconic London pieces," he said.
'The Art of the Brick' runs at London's Old Truman Brewery from 26 September until 4 January 2015.
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