Day Tripper

The Art of the Brick

by Mary Wilson

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There are two kinds of kids in the world: those who take the time to assemble the 5,000-piece LEGO Millennium Falcon, complete with rotating radar dishes, and those who'd rather just pretend they did. In 1978, Nathan Sawaya fell into the former category, and — to the benefit of those lazybones who fall under the latter — all his meticulous snapping has paid off.

Sawaya's now building LEGO sculptures and mosaics massive enough to make even the most fanatical "indoor kid" weep. Among them are a life-size Tyrannosaurus Rex, a 6-foot-tall Han Solo frozen in carbonite, and mosaic portraits of Curious George, Lindsay Lohan and Alfred Hitchcock. The 33-year-old New York artist was recognized as an official LEGO master model builder in 2004, and has appeared on The Late Show with David Letterman and NBC's Today Show. Now his fame is building him a place in the art world.

His first solo exhibit features more than 25 sculptures and mosaics made between 2002 and now, ranging from a humble Monopoly box to a giant hanging likeness of John Lennon. The whole project includes nearly 1 million bricks, with still more to go around: For the exhibit, the museum will be converted into a veritable LEGO studio, where visitors can leave behind their own LEGO creations for others to admire.

Runs April 7-May 20, Lancaster Museum of Art, 135 N. Lime St., Lancaster, 717-394-3497, www.lmapa.org