The Lego paintings of Andrew Veloux
By Pam Hersh
Princeton artist Andrew Veloux is a piece of work, because his works of art consist of millions of pieces. Using plastic bricks, known to parents and kids throughout the world as Legos, Mr. Veloux paints portraits and pop art images — often imbedded with social statements. His work caused quite a stir — and in my case a spilled coffee — at a recent Small World Coffee exhibit of his Lego paintings.
I was able to contain neither my enthusiasm nor my coffee, as I pushed people out of the way to get a close look at the incredible Veloux Lego paintings. My 8-year-old granddaughter Lily shadowed me as we zigzagged through the maze of tables, but in her case she did more than just say “ooohhhh” and “ahhhhh.” She was so inspired that when we got back to her house, she created her own Lego painting — a red apple with green stem, “drawn” from the zillions of Legos littering the floor of her bedroom. A practical benefit to Lily’s creativity is that there are fewer pieces on the floor for grandma to trip over.
Mr. Veloux’s creations, however, are way beyond child’s play. His two- and three-dimensional artwork is inspired by wanting to create physical, touchable thought-provoking art. The British-born artist, who came to Princeton a few years ago with his wife and daughter (now 15 years old) when his wife accepted a job with Bristol-Myers Squibb, explained that his Lego art is more than just copying images. The paintings make people smile with glee over the imaginative use of the Legos, but often Mr. Veloux is sending a message with his medium. The artist is “reimagining,” “interpreting,” “deconstructing,” “transforming” images “into hyper-realistic and captivating artworks in two and three dimensions, using sculptural and textual elements made from Lego bricks.
”The use of these small plastic bricks that everyone has lying around their homes immediately registers with viewers of my art,” Mr. Veloux says. “When I create artworks and in particular portraits — especially of well-known icons — here a question is raised immediately between the plasticity of these bricks that can be taken apart and rebuilt and the way we create and model icons in society.”
For example, the artist has a “taxi” series of pictures in which the New York City iconic Yellow Cab checker boxes are woven into pictures to represent different types of journeys. Mr. Veloux’s Lego portrait of President Obama has the taxi black-and-white checker-board squares in a band around Obama’s head to represent a political journey. Also he did a “HeForShe” logo out of Legos to represent gender equality and his belief that everyone must have a voice. “Everyone standing up for gender equality is important to me and part of the reasoning behind doing the portrait of Jane Fonda — which is the first of a big portrait project I have in mind.”
Mr. Veloux acknowledged that for many of his fans, the medium may be as intriguing as the message. “Lego in all its various forms is at the same time limiting as well as limitless in its possibilities. The color palette is limited yet consistent and the basic ‘pixel’ size is also fixed. Yet at the same time, it is a hard, durable, tactile and lightweight material, it can be reused, replaced and altered at will, and provides a myriad of different possibilities due to the different available shaped bricks, tiles and plates, with the exciting opportunity to create three-dimensional and textural aspects to the art.”
Working in his studio — the sun porch of his house — he has containers of Legos separated by shape, size, color and texture (flat tiles or tiles with “studs” or bumps). He uses about 2,000 bricks per painting — sometimes far more, and makes his purchases online. His creations start by his taking a photo of what he wants to draw and a vision in his mind of how he wants to alter that original image. With computer editing and manipulating far beyond my comprehension, Andre can match the appropriate Lego shape and color to the right spot in the picture. The bricks are glued or “plugged in” (if the bricks have studs).
Although always creative, Mr. Veloux never sought to be on a career path as a painting-with-Legos artist. Not surprisingly, he has a background in mathematics and operations research engineering, having worked in England as a designer of educational websites for universities. When he and his family relocated to Princeton, he had no job, focused on being a stay-at-home dad, and “really got involved with Legos.” Those little bricks have turned out to be very healthy affair for Mr. Veloux, who in the past few years has transformed the hobby into a thriving artistic profession.
His work has developed rapidly over the last three years, from the early simpler mosaic forms with plain backgrounds to more complex images with noise style background and then to including three-dimensional elements. His pieces have been displayed in a number of group shows, initially locally, but already his work has been included in commercial galleries such as being selected for the Jonathon Levine Juried show at the Parlor Gallery in Asbury Park. Most recently he held a full show at Small World Coffee in Princeton. In April, Andre’s works will be part of the Pinot to Picasso benefit for the Arts Council of Princeton, followed by participation in a juried arts festival (Arts in the Park) in Highland Park in September, followed by an art exhibit at a Lambertville gallery (Community Gallery) in the spring of 2016.He is happy to summarize his career with a cliché — Andre Veloux looks forward to building his future — one block at a time.
For more information, go to www.veloux.com.