A Conversation with Sean Kenney, LEGOâ„¢ Building Sculptor
Friday, 13 Apr 2012 at 12:00 pm – Lyle E. Lightfoot Forum, Atrium, College of Design
Join us for a conversation and interactive demonstration with Sean Kenney, who was named the world's first LEGOâ„¢ Certified Professional in 2005, and remains one of only nine such artists in the world. Kenney has been turning ordinary LEGOâ„¢ bricks into contemporary sculpture, corporate commissions, and personalized gifts for people around the world for more than thirty years. Based in New York City, he has created pieces for television, celebrities, tourist attractions, galleries, museums, and companies like Google, Mazda, Nintendo and Samsung. He and his work have been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, ELLE, Good Morning America, and numerous documentaries and retrospectives about LEGOâ„¢, including a full-length documentary about Kenney himself. He is the author of the bestselling Cool Cars and Trucks, the first in a series of picture-book-building-guides for children. He also runs MOCpages.com, the world's largest LEGOâ„¢ fan community.Sean Kenney will use LEGOâ„¢ bricks to create a new blockbuster display for the gardening world. The traveling exhibit premiers at Reiman Gardens in 2012. Twenty-seven LEGOâ„¢ brick sculptures have been commissioned to create 14 individual displays ranging in size from 6 inches to nearly 8 feet using almost 500,000 individual LEGOâ„¢ bricks. The sculptures are inspired by gardens and wildlife from birds to flowers, butterflies to garden tools.
Growing up, when Sean Kenney wasn't building LEGOâ„¢ creations, he was always drawing, first comic books, and then a published series of newspaper cartoons. As an adult with a desk job for ten years, he would come home from the office every day and play with his LEGOâ„¢ bricks . . . usually while still in his suit! Eventually he hung up his tie, left the office, and merged his interest in the visual arts with his love of LEGOâ„¢ toys. In 2005 Sean Kenney was named the first of now only nine "LEGOâ„¢ Certified Professionals" in the world. A self-described "big kid," using LEGOâ„¢ bricks allows Kenney to create things to which people - especially children - can relate. He hopes that after seeing his sculptures, children become inspired to create great things themselves.
Fun Facts
- Sean has over 1.5 million LEGOâ„¢ pieces.
- The biggest LEGOâ„¢ sculpture Sean ever made was a polar bear, using 95,000 pieces!
- He once built a 12-foot bridge on live TV in 2 hours.
seankenney.com
Cosponsored By:
- College of Design
- Reiman Gardens
- Committee on Lectures (funded by Student Government)
Stay for the entire event, including the brief question-and-answer session that follows the formal presentation. Most events run 75 minutes.
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