LEGO exhibit features 100+ sculptures made of over 1M pieces at California Science Center

EXPOSITION PARK, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- For nearly 90 years, LEGOs have entertained children who build unique creations with the interlocking plastic bricks. Now, an artist has turned them into an amazing art exhibit at the California Science Center.

"The Art of the Brick" opens Friday, Feb. 28 and will feature more than 100 works of art, crafted from more than 1 million LEGO pieces. You'd expect to see a tyrannosaurus rex at a science exhibit, except this one is made from 80,000 LEGO bricks.

Nathan Sawaya, the mind behind the exhibit, worked as a corporate lawyer in New York City and decided he needed a new creative outlet.

"So I started experimenting with LEGO, eventually decided you know what, I'm going to make a career out of this and I left the law firm behind to make a full-time job playing with toys," Sawaya said.

"Yellow," a LEGO sculpture of the top half of man's body with yellow bricks spilling out from the abdomen, is his best-known sculpture due to the sense of movement and fluidity conveyed with the seemingly static bricks.

"That's kind of the magic of using LEGO bricks... I create things that are made out of just rectangles, just right angles, sharp corners, but then you back away from these sculptures and you see all those corners blend into curves," he said.

This exhibit has traveled around the world, inspiring imagination and wonder.

"The mission of the California Science Center is to inspire curiosity and science learning. We often like to do this by showing people science in their everyday life, including the toys they play with," said Diane Perlov, Senior Vice President of Exhibits.

The exhibit, which will remain open through Labor Day, also features an interactive portion, 'The Science of the Brick," which includes nine activity stations. Visit the California Science Center's website for more information on the exhibit.