LEGO art on display at Morris Museum

Millions of children have snapped the brightly colored blocks together into miniature houses, vehicles, structures and other simple forms. But increasing numbers of adults have embraced LEGO as a medium of mature imaginative expression, turning a children’s toy into an instrument for composing works of astounding complexity, vision and finesse.

The Morris Museum’s “Brick by Brick” winter exhibit showcases epic LEGO constructions by four contemporary masters of the burgeoning subculture genre. According to museum executive director Linda Moore, the show perpetuates a holiday tradition inaugurated several years ago with a display of Nathan Sawaya’s pioneering LEGO sculptures.

“This year’s exhibit is a group show that includes sculptures of objects from pop culture, as well as buildings and memorable masterpieces from the art world,” said Moore. “We’ll also be adding ‘Mona LEGO’ and ‘Girl with a Brick Earring,’ created by museum staff.”

The exhibit demonstrates the surprising versatility of LEGO, as each of the four artists pursues diametrically divergent purposes. Graphic artist and designer David Haliski reawakened a childhood preoccupation when he began seriously exploring the creative potential of LEGO in 2008.

“The pure, consistent color allows for a uniform and bold graphic style,” he explained. “My digital design experience — where pixels are the building blocks — allows me to expand on my LEGO vision as an adult.”

Taking his cue from the late Andy Warhol, Haliski monumentalizes commercial icons of popular culture, building oversized LEGO replicas of things like a box of detergent, a fast food meal, or a two liter bottle of a sugary carbonated beverage. Though tinged with irony, his works promote a positive message.

“I’d like people to view my pieces as a guide of what is possible with just a few bricks,” said Haliski. “Life, and LEGO, is much more than what is in the instruction manual.”

Whereas Haliski uplifts the commonplace, Mike Doyle conjures the fantastical. His symphonic orchestration of an imaginary metropolis sprawls so largely that it can only be represented in the exhibit via photographs and building models.

“The work takes the viewer to a mystical planet called Odan in the midst of a celebration,” Doyle said. “It’s six feet high by about that wide, and three feet deep, and took around 800 hours and over 200,000 pieces to complete.”

Doyle has initiated the “Odan Project,” a Kickstarter campaign in which he solicits both financing and concepts towards further developing his epic sculptural enterprise. He rewards investors with fine art prints of the finished work, along with sections of the subsequently dismantled construction.

While Doyle evolves fantasies, Jonathan Lopes reproduces his world in precision miniature.

“I typically build model train and town layouts entirely out of LEGO bricks,” he said. “I try to build buildings and landscapes as realistically as possible.”

Lopes created an incredible 400 square foot replica of his native Brooklyn replete with painstakingly accurate details of every landmark. He constructed a perfect model of the Morris Museum especially for the exhibit.

Lopes’ rigorous representations contrast with Blake Foster’s fancifully fictional space stations and spaceships. He took nearly a year to produce his Manticore military spacecraft, which he describes as armed with a “Destructo Beam,” among other science-fictional weaponry.

“I build spaceships like a proper man-child,” he quips. “I write software during the day to fund my LEGO habit.”

The exhibit features a large-scale working LEGO model train with live demonstrations every Saturday at 1:30 p.m. Related programs include Doyle’s lecture and book signing of his volume “Beautiful LEGO 2” on Jan. 17, and a cityscape building program with him on Jan. 24, for which pre-registration is required.

BRICK BY BRICK

WHAT: Contemporary LEGO artwork

WHEN: 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Tuesday to Saturday, 12 to 5 p.m. Sunday through March 15

WHERE: The Morris Museum, 6 Normandy Heights Road, Morristown

ADMISSION: $10 for adults, $7 for children, students and seniors

INFO: 973-971-3700, www.morrismuseum.org