We're bringing Ai Weiwei's Lego works and art car to New York

For those new to this particular piece of Ai Weiwei lore, the controversy first came about in 2015 after Lego refused to fill a bulk order from the artist, during a time when he was using the bricks to create portraits of international human rights activists and political dissidents. Lego claimed using their products to make political statements goes against company policy, and thus were unable to provide the product. In response, Ai Weiwei established Lego collection points at art museums around the world where the public could then donate their own Lego pieces for the works.The campaign was not only highly effective, but also highly publicized, turning the artist’s would-be political works into a global examination of corporate capitalism and freedom of speech.

The bricks, besides having an essential role to play as part of Ai Weiwei’s political sword, also mark a period where Ai used Lego as his main medium. The Zodiac series features a set of larger-than-life portraits of the animals within the Chinese zodiac; his After series reimagines classic works by the likes of Rubens, Mondrian, Munch, Van Gogh, Duchamp, and Pollock entirely in Lego. Works from both the Zodiac and the After series will be displayed alongside Ai Weiwei’s Lego art car as part of our Ai Weiwei LEGO Story exhibition.