Hi, welcome! This is my website Brick Art Stories. Showing you (a selection of) my unique LEGO miniatures, exhibition announcements and pictures, and more. This site will be updated every now and then. For more information and/or questions: info@brickartstories.com or visit my Instagram page: brick_art_stories. Scroll down to read the complete story of my LEGO concept and ambitions.
Bricking News!
Together with fellow artist Wouter van der Giessen I am invited by IDFX Breda for the exchange program 2023 to Neue Galerie Landshut, Germany! My very first steps abroad with my LEGO concept. Almost all LEGO miniatures will be on display in a very beautiful art space. The show opens on Friday 28th April. Till Sunday 21st of May. Art Collectables and art prints for sale! With many thanks to IDFX and Neue Galerie Landshut.
Details, see http://www.ngla.de
How to explain pictures to a dead hare is an iconic (performative) art work by German artist Joseph Beuys. In 1963 he entered a gallery in Dusseldorf with a dead hare in his arms. He walked alongside his paintings and whispered to the hare. Visitors were excluded from the gallery and had to wait outside. When the tour was finished, people could enter. Joseph Beuys set himself on a stool and did not talk anymore. Performance was finished.
Liesbeth and Angelique Raeven are twin sisters and artist duo at the same time! L.A. Raeven is their artist name. In 2005 they made ‘Love knows many faces’. In the centre of a pond they try to drown each other till they both are too exhausted to continue the act. At the end they hold on to a pole sticking in/ above the water. Being twins, they are condemned to each other, without having any choice. Fate of nature. They love but also hate each other every know and then. How to cope with that feeling? I think this mixed feeling is beautifully shown in their iconic ‘Love knows many faces’, so I really wanted to make a LEGO miniature of it!
Above: Imponderabilia from the legendary couple Abramovic and Ulay got an updae too! More details, more improved art space scenery, a bit more of a challenging build for me. Visitors had to pass between the two naked artists, looking to each other while standing with their back against the door post of the entrance… totally naked! About invading others personal space, decision making, a feeling of embarrassment too I guess. What would you do? Who would you look into the eyes?
Pictures above: 4 iconic performances of Belgium born artist Francis Alÿs in this updated LEGO miniature! Can you spot all 4? The street represents a street in Mexico City, the place where Alÿs does his performances, in public space. Also, to create awareness of the deplorable state of his beloved city. Abandonned houses and shops, broken windows, homeless people, et cetera. To be honest, 1 perforances is recorded in London. Do you know which one?
Arty Farty LEGO Party was amazing! Check the pictures above. A lot of people visited the show. Many kids praticipated in the LEGO challenge and art collectables were sold. This exhibition proved to me that my art educational concept, telling stories of art with my unique LEGO miniatures to a broad public, is effective in every way. Kids are fascinated by the LEGO designs and automatically try to understand what is going on. Later, they read the true story so they get even more knowledge about art. Adult fans of LEGO idem. Even art lovers discover things they didn’t know yet. This party was a success thanks to: the people of art organisation IDFX, Bram’s Bouwstenen for sponsoring the bulk LEGO, Mignon Nustelling as moderator during the artist talk and newspaper BNdeStem for writing an article prior to the show. Next LEGO project will be soon!
Above, the 4 available miniatures! Every Art Collectable is inspired by an iconic art work and comes with the needed LEGO-bricks to build one specific miniature, an informative full color instruction booklet and a custom designed box. A little surprise is also included! This art edition is made with the help of many professionals and is unique in the world. Every Art Collectable is signed and numbered by hand, twice. Prices range from 60 to 100 euro’s (including 20% discount, without shipping costs). Edition of 100, 25 boxes each. Interested? Send me an e-mail to info@brickartstories.com. Soon, you will be the famous artist building the icon!
Ushering in Banality, made by pop art artist Jeff Koons! With a brown colored plateau (build sidewards), a custom build pig and more accurate positioned boys pushing the animal. Butterfly wings replaced by new LEGO angel wings. The legs of the two front boys in more active positions. The boy in red wearing a dark grey jacket. Took off its grey arms of this torso and put red ones back. Dark gloves and hair piece with red hair band to finish. The yellow and blue boys still wearing the classic space tenues! What surprises me most is that there seems no interaction between the 3 boys… they just pushing a pig, how banal!
Thank you for visiting my official LEGO website! My name is Jordy Koevoets, born in 1984 and living in The Netherlands. I am a professional fine artist and a big fan of LEGO. Since 2019 I have combined my artistic process with my interest in LEGO. I design unique miniatures inspired by iconic art works, using only original LEGO bricks. With these builds I try to bridge the gap between art world and people who are not too familiar with art. The plastic brick is proven to be an effective and playful tool to connect opposite worlds. Besides these educative and somewhat idealistic intentions, all my self-made miniatures are tributes too. Little tributes to legendary artists who really made the difference with their ideas and works of art.
To make these miniatures I work by a set of strict rules. Firstly, I am only allowed to use original LEGO-bricks. Second, the featured original art work must be iconic. Third, the use of glue and scissors are absolutely forbidden. Fourth, no alien additions are allowed. Only custom-made prints on real LEGO items can be added on the condition that these prints are crucial and no other solutions are satisfying. Last but not least: the final design must be as mall as possible, preferably minifig scale. This miniature claim makes it even harder, because the smaller the intended outcome, the more difficult it gets!
The chosen art works range from the early 20th century till now. No art discipline, movement or media is excluded on forehand. Nevertheless, one art work is more attractive to me than others. There must be a click when I see a potential work of art. It is like falling in love. If sparks fly, fundamental building questions do pop up immediately. Can I make it with LEGO? What is the essence of this work? And what are crucial characteristics (like colour and proportion) that I need to capture? An imaginary construction plan unfolds and notes are written on photoprints of the chosen art work. When these preparations are done it is time to start building!
Although LEGO has thousands and thousands of different items, from traditional straightforward bricks to very complex shapes, and with colours ranging from basic to shiny metallic and pastel shades, it is still not easy to build just anything. It is this paradox that triggers me, and that offers me a challenge. I regularly encounter seemingly insurmountable constructive obstacles. A whole variety of bricks is used to find the best solution possible. The final outcome of my LEGO-miniatures can range from apparently simple to more complex results. For instance, Malevich’s Black Square is easily transformed into a plane tableau of black and white LEGO tiles. However, a performative art work like Fall II by Dutch artist Bas Jan Ader asks for an immersive setting made with hundreds of bricks and many different building techniques. At this moment my collection consists of approximately 50 unique LEGO miniatures. When all creations are placed next to each other, it is like time traveling through the world of art.
Thanks for joining. Stay tuned for more artistic storytelling LEGO projects and updates on my website. For now, let’s start building!
Jordy Koevoets – Brick Art Stories
On 18th of July 2022, at the age of 93, pop art artist Claes Oldenburg died. He is well known for his king size sculptures of every day objects, often situated in the public space. His dead was for me the starting point to recreate one of his iconic works with LEGO. The Saw from Tokyo was the one. In no-time I made the saw blade. The red grip came out pretty smooth! A lot of red curves, slopes and details. The most important was to fit the saw in the earth as strong as possible, with its center of gravity far above the surface! Besides the connection below surface, the saw must incline a bit, as if the saw is really cutting the earth into pieces. And to make it more difficult, the lowest horizontal red line of the grip must be in an 90 degrees angle with the light grey blade. 2 fancy Japanese students, a mother with child and a tourist, must be overwhelmed by the sculpture. A little tribute to an outstanding artist: Claes Oldenburg.
Not To Be Repreduced (translated from the original La Reproduction Interdit), by René Magritte, 1937… in LEGO! Including an essential print of the original art work on a tile 2×3 to complete the design.
LEGO-miniature (detail) inspired by the iconic performance Rest Energy, Marina Abramovic and Ulay, 1980.
In the pictures above you see a selection of 33 LEGO-miniatures on display in the exhibition When LEGO Becomes Art in the showcases of library Lochal Tilburg. From 26th of November 2020 till 26th September 2021, With great supportof Kunstloc Brabant. Miniatures inspired by art works from Francis Alÿs, Panamarenko, Marcel Duchamp, Jan Fabre, and Teun Hocks,
2 miniatures – Lobster Telephone in bricks and Fountain in bricks – on display during the group exhibition Benefit For Brabant, at Park Tilburg, The Netherlands. From 8 till 30 of August 2020.
LEGO-miniature based on the intriguing performance of Bas Jan Ader Fall II, 1970. It’s one of three LEGO designs inspired by his oeuvre.
This website will be updated frequently. If you have any questions or remarks, please send me an e-mail: info@brickartstories.com
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