Introduction

Gallery Name: Building Blocks in Art

Location: Internet

Ran By: Jamie Taylor

Type of Work Shown: Artist who used pieces of things that didn't seem like much, to create amazing art.

Exhibition Introduction

Building Blocks in Art

Pete Fecteau

Sonia King

Nathan Sawaya

Robert Mills

Frank Owen Gehry

Patrick St. Germain

Nicholas Foo

Sol LeWitt

Sean Kenney

Kumi Yamashita

This show is about how pieces that seem to be nothing can come together to create something amazing. For example, a single Rubik’s Cube doesn’t look like much, but when thousands of them are put together in a certain pattern, they can make a mural that is incredible. An item such as a Lego which was intended to be a Child's toy can be turned into a master piece. How about an ordinary stone? When added to other stones it can create a beautiful mural.

Pete Fecteau- Dream Big

Pete Fecteau

Dream Big

Rubik’s Cubes

19′ x 8’6″ x 2.25″ weight is about 1000lbs

September 2010

Pete was bornin Arizona on April 9th 1983. He attended Plymouth State University in Plymouth, New Hampshire and was taking graphic design classes. He then transferred to Kendall College of art and Design where he got a Bachelors degree in fine art for digital media design.

On Pete’s website he has a fan with the screen name of Stoffershory say this about Dream Big “That is amazing Pete. Lot’s of determination and planning I’m guessing. I can’t even do ONE Rubik’s Cube, let alone over 4,000 (and I’ve still got my original cube from the 70s)!”

The cubes that were rented to create Dream Big cost $9000. It took 4,242 cubes to complete the mural. After Dream big was entered into a competition and placed in the top 50out of 1,700 pieces entered, it was put up for sale. After multiple attempts and failures to sell the mural, it was dissembled ant the cubes were retuned to where they were rented from.

I chose this piece of work because I felt that it fit in with my theme very well. The mural was amazing, especially being made of Rubik’s Cubes. It is amazing that Pete was able to manipulate that many cubes to make such an amazing picture. 

Sonia King- Spinoff

Sonia King

Spinoff

chrysocolla, malachite, amazonite, pearls, ceramic, glass, turquoise, smalti, paua shell, beach glass, pebbles, abalone, crystals, gold, and labradorite

18”x24”

2007

Sonia first came in contact with mosaics as a child when her mother would create pieces of mosaic art. She received a Bacholors in Fine Art at California College of The Arts, and a Masters from Southern Methodist University. She has also been fetured on HGTV’s Modern Masters, as well as several books.

Sonia says that” Spinoff creates a world that doesn't exist.   A world that evokes islands drifting in the Pacific, galaxies moving through space or perhaps microscopic life forms breaking free.   A world to lose oneself in, a world for dreams infinite and surreal, a world to step into and perceive with heightened senses.   A world created by the juxtaposition of precious stones, gold and pearls interspersed between recycled scraps of ceramic, beach glass, paua shell and more that continually offers differing views with multiple points of interest.”

Sonia states that the art that she creates gives tangible shape and form to the unknown, and creates maps to where she will never find again.

I chose this piece because I liked the colors used. It relates to my theme because it shows that you can have a bunch of random pieces that may mean nothing, but when they are put together they can create something beautiful.

Nathan Sawaya- New York Public Library Lions

Nathan Sawaya

New York Public Library Lions

Lego Bricks

37" x 63" x 25"

June 2011

Nathan Sawaya is an artist based out of New York. He was born in Colville, Washington.  His creations are all created out of Lego blocks. He has been able to show his work all over the United States, and most recently has been able to show his work in other countries as well.

The two lions were constructed for the 100th anniversary of the New York Public library in June of 2011. The lions were made to be exactly half the size of the lions that were placed in front of the building 100 years earlier. It took about 60,00 bricks to construct both lions. 

Nathan had this to say about building the sculptures of the two lions; “The marble lions are named Patience and Fortitude. And, as you can guess, while building these sculptures I needed a lot of patience and forties.”

I chose to use Nathan’s work because he has amazing talent. What was originally designed to entertain 

children, Nathan has been able to create exceptional pieces of art. 

robert Mills- Washington Monument

Robert Mills

Washington Monument

Marble, Granite, and bluestone gneiss

555’ 5 1/8” X 55’ 1 ½”

Began 1848 and completed 1884

Robert mills was born August 12th 1781 and died March 3rd 1855. He is most well known as the architect who constructed the Washington Monument. After graduating at the College of Charleston he moved to Washington DC. At the age of 19 he started to work on the construction of the White House with his friend and mentor John Hoban. During that time he met Thomas Jefferson, who would go on to mentor Robert. Robert had also constructed many other buildings around the DC area, including several churches, a prison, Department of Treasury, and Washington Hall.

Tiffany Y. from Honolulu, Hawaii said this abut the Washington Monument; “I tell you, as we walked down the National Mall and seeing the Washington Monument was so impressive because of it's height with the flags surrounding it. I haven't seen it during the evening and looking forward to next week when I do!”

The Washington Monument was created to commemorate George Washington, who was our first president and commander-in-chief of the Continental Army. The monument remains the tallest stone structure in the world. Construction began in 1848 and didn’t get competed until 1884. It took so long to complete because of the lack of funds and the interruption of the Civil War. The monument was damaged in an earthquake in 2011, and isn’t due to open until 2014.

I chose the Washington Monument, because it is a simple structure, yet it holds great historical significance. The monument is known by most people, despite its simplicity, it is an American icon.

Frank Owen Gehry- 8 Sruce St.

Frank Owen Gehry

8 Spruce St.

Mainly concrete, iron, stainless steel, brick and glass

870’ tall, 76 story sky scraper

Completed February 2011

Frank was born Frank Owen Goldberg. He was born in Toronto, Ontario on February 28th 1929. He started out as a child building cities out of scraps of wood. In 1947 he moved to California and started to attend Los Angeles City College, and eventually graduated from University of California’s School of Architecture.

Architectural critic Nicolai Ouroussoff called it "the finest skyscraper to rise in New York since Eero Saarinen’s CBS building went up 46 years ago". 

The building is located in lower Manhattan, New York. It serves as a school, Space for a hospital, retail, and luxury rentals. It is the 12th tallest residential building in the world, and the second tallest in the Western Hemisphere.

I chose to include this sky scraper because I think that it is phenomenal that buildings can be built in this magnitude. The building has a sense of beauty to it. 

Patrick St. Germain- warm Gradients

 

Patrick St. Germain

Warm Gradients

Oil paint on canvas

60”x30”

Originally created in 2011, can currently be purchaced and recreated by hand.

Patrick graduated from Concordia University in Montreal with a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts. He is now the head of Ren-Wil’s art studio in Lasalle, Montreal; which has been around for just over 45 years.

Captontony from the website Kaboodle said this about Patrick’s piece of art, “I FOUND IT!!!! I too have been looking all over for this piece. I love it and FINALLY found it again”

 The painting was created by using warm tones or gray, blue, and orange. It was originally painted in 2011, and can now be ordered online to be recreated using the same products, oil based paint on a hand wrapped canvas.

I chose this piece because I was attracted to the color scheme. I like that it looks like it is made of small cubes, but it is actually the way that the paint was put onto the canvas.

Nicholas Foo- Whale

Nicholas Foo

Whale

Lego Blocks

1.2m x 1.8m

March 2011

Nicholas Foo is the only Asian based Lego certified professional. He crates individual pieces of work for all types of clients. He also creates pieces to for trade shows and charity events.

Nicholas had this to say about whale; “This is surely one the more quirky murals
I've done so far. The sketching and dot inking process from photo collages was quite tricky in some areas but I'm glad of the final results.”

Whale was created along with two other murals; all were mounted at three different bus stops around Singapore. When viewed from the front, the murals all blended in to their backgrounds. Each mural took over 97,000 pieces to create.

I chose whale because I thought that it was a well thought out piece. It is neat how Nicholas was able to have the mural blend into the background.

Sol LeWill- Four-sided Pyramid

Sol LeWitt

Four-Sided Pyramid

Concrete and Mortar

15’ 3/8”× 33’ ½”× 31’ 10 ¼”

1965

Sol LeWitt was born September 9th 1928 in Hartford, Connecticut and died in New York, New York April 8th 2007 at the age of 78. He acquired his training from Syracuse University, school of the fine arts. Sol also taught at many New York schools including New York University and the school of visual arts.

The Columbia Encyclopedia says “Reflecting his study of mathematics, Lewitt reduced the contents of his art to the most basic shapes, colors, and lines, creating modular cubes and grid structures, geometric “wall drawings,” and serial graphics”.

The plans for Four-Sided Pyramid were created by Sol in 1965. It wasn’t until 1999 that the structure itself was completed in the National Gallery of Art Sculpture Garden in Washington DC. The structure looks very different from all angles, depending on where your viewpoint is.

I chose to use to use Four-Sided Pyramid because of its geometric aspects. I also feel that it is very appealing to the eye. It is also different how the structure looks different from all angles even when it is all made the same way.

Sean Kenney- Polar Bear

Sean Kenney

Polar Bear

Lego Bricks

110" x 70" x 65"

4/10/2010

Sean was born August 22, 1976. As a child he took up an interest in cartooning and became a published cartoonist at the age of 18. He later attended Rutgers University and studied computer science, philosophy, and computer science. At the age of 27 he started to create pieces of art made from Lego’s professionally. He has his creations being shown all over the world. He is also an established and published author of five different books.

When Sean was describing how he wanted to portray the polar bear this is what he said;” Since he is stuck on an ice floe and his species is endangered, I wanted him to look a little frustrated, a little sad, a little confused, and overall concerned about the predicament he is in.”

The “polar Bear” was created with 95,000 Lego Blocks and took over 1100 hours to construct. It was amazingly finished in only two weeks. Two of those days were spent on the facial expression, taking great care that he wouldn’t look too cartoonish, rather so that he had a humanistic look to him.

I chose this creation because, not only was it built with blocks and is absolutely amazing, polar bears are stunning creatures. 

Kumi Yamashita- City View

Kumi Yamashita

City View

Aluminum numbers with a single light source shadow

250cmx500cmx5cm

2003

Kumi Yamashita was born in Japan, and no currently lives and resides in New York City, New York. He attended Glasgow School of Art in Glasgow, UK achieving a Masters in fine art. In 1999 and in 1994 he attended Cornish College of the Arts in Washington and earned a bachelor in fine art degree. He has achieved many awards in the US and Japan ranging from 1993 until 2003. He has also had many select single shows around the world from 1997 until 2003. Starting in 1999, he has had many select group and special projects up to this current year.

When Kumi was asked why he used light to create his work he responded by saying “Because light is beautiful. I love to see the solidness/ weight of materials and the ungraspable/ weightlessness of the light and shadow in my work”.

The piece of art, City View, is being displayed in a 30 story office building in Osaka Japan. The Shadow of the woman is overlooking a balcony on the second floor of the building; as though she is watching the people on the first floor go by.

I chose this piece of art because I felt that it fit in well. Kumi was able to use simple letter blocks and light to create a piece of art that is out of the ordinary. By using two simple matters, he was able to create a piece of art that gets my mind wondering. It is amazing that he can create elaborate shadows just by the placement of blocks.

Conclusion

While organizing an exhibition I learned that there are many challenges to be faced. It is quite difficult to find all of the information that needs to be provided such as the dimensions, or statements on the work. I did find that it was fun to find pieces to include, however the information to go with it was difficult to find. I also discovered that all of the artists I have selected had all attended some sort of schooling, which is proof that an education is very important if you want to take your work to the next level. I found that with the category that I selected there were quite a few people with architectural degrees or backgrounds as well.