BUILD!
Toy Brick Art at the Heard
Families, adults and children of all ages assemble the building blocks of creativity at the Heard Museum this summer.
LEGO bricks, the popular building toy, will be the inspiration of a family-friendly, interactive exhibit that opens May 24 at the Heard Museum in Phoenix.
BUILD! Toy Brick Art at the Heard will feature local American Indian, Mexican-American and non-Indian artists transforming their artworks using the versatile toy bricks. This exhibit will also feature two LEGO brick creations by well-known brick artists Nathan Sawaya and Sean Kenney.
Native artists Steven Yazzie (Navajo) and Autumn Dawn Gomez (Comanche/Taos Pueblo/Navajo) and Mexican-American artist Lalo Cota will be creating their first artworks with LEGO bricks while local LEGO brick artist Dave Shaddix will be transforming Navajo artist Marlowe Katoney's Angry Birds textile into a LEGO brick mosaic. Also included are works by Cactus Brick, a Tempe-based LEGO brick-building club.
Interactive activities — from June workshops to July “block parties” to an August building contest — combined with the exhibit’s already-assembled sculptures will bring to both children and adults a close-up demonstration of the bricks’ amazing capabilities of form, color and design.
BUILD! Toy Brick Art
May 24 – September 28, 2014
The Heard Museum
2301 N. Central Ave., Phoenix
Bicycle Trumps Traffic, Sean Kenney, 2011.
Built with 93,407 LEGO brick pieces.
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ARTIST
Superman Mosaic Detail, Mark Mancuso and Joel Hornbeek (designers), Mark Mancuso and Mia Mancuso (builders).
Detail of LEGO brick depiction of Action Comics No. 1 (June 1938 issue).
Approximately 120" x 75", more than 55,000 LEGO bricks mounted on LEGO plates, then on plywood frames.
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE ARTISTS
Coyote Sit, Navajo artist Steve Yazzie with the help of his young son.
PHOTO BY CAESAR CHAVES/HEARD MUSEUM
SCourtyardModel, Dave Shaddix.
Valley LEGO brick builder Dave Shaddix created his sculpture of the Heard Museum’s original 1929 edifice and courtyard,
done in the same Spanish Colonial Revival architectural style, that will appear in the exhibit, BUILD! Toy Brick Art at the Heard.
PHOTO BY CAESAR CHAVES/HEARD MUSEUM
Angry Birds: Tree of Life, Dave Shaddix (designer) and Heard Museum volunteers (builders).
LEGO brick depiction of Angry Birds: Tree of Life, original wool textile by Marlowe Katoney (Navajo); 2014.
Approximately 70" x 80"; more than 55,000 LEGO bricks mounted on LEGO plates, then on plywood frames.
PHOTO BY CAESAR CHAVES/HEARD MUSEUM
