I’ve always been fascinated by the possibilities that exploring the fusion of LEGO® and puppetry might offer. While there have been a few attempts at that over the years, I’ve always suspected that finding real success would probably require first exploring and expanding LEGO’s deeper aesthetic potential.
Ekow Nimako is a Toronto-based, Ghanaian Canadian artist who is doing just that, crafting futuristic, whimsical sculptures with LEGO that combine aspects of Afrofuturism and Afrofantasy. His fine art sculptures take between 50 to 800 hours to create, and use as many as 100,000 individual bricks. I first encountered his work several years ago when his massive installation Cavalier Noir was featured at Nuit Blanche Toronto. He has only grown in stature and popularity as an artist since then, appearing in countless Canadian media outlets, as well as on CNN, Hyperallergic, Colossal, and even a documentary commissioned by LEGO itself (above).
You can learn more about Ekow’s work on his web site EkowNimako.com.
