Saint John couple brings Lego creations to city’s art scene

A new exhibition at the Saint John Art Centre is anything but typical.

Husband and wife Ken and Alicia Robichaud have joined forces for the exhibition “Pop Culture Cubed,” which combines Ken’s Lego building skills and Alicia’s painting talent.

“It actually started several years ago,” notes Alicia Robichaud. “Ken and I were sitting one evening talking, and we wanted to do a show that blended our two art mediums together. Then we came up with the idea of the Dark Tower sculpture to start with.”

The Dark Tower sculpture, inspired by the Stephen King novels, is just one of many displays in the exhibition. Other Lego sculptures featured include Captain America’s shield, swords from the film “Kill Bill” and a movie poster from “The Shining” built entirely out of Lego.

Some of the pieces are accompanied by Alicia’s acrylic paintings, none more so than the Dark Tower, which serves as the exhibition’s focal point.

“The Dark Tower or something from a novel, there's no real representation of it,” says Lego sculptor Ken Robichaud, who goes by the handle “Buried by Bricks” within the Lego community. “Everybody just has their own vision of it in their mind so it allows us to do our version without it being a total recreation of something on screen, like Captain America's shield.”

The tower contains more than 20,000 pieces, while the accompanying artwork is the largest piece Alicia has ever created. In total, the entire display contains well over 50,000 different Lego pieces.

“There's no instructions,” says Ken, who has been into Lego building since the late 1990s. “I usually picture something in my mind and put things together until I get what I want.”

The couple believes the exhibition is the first Lego-themed art display to be showcased in the Port City. Ken has showcased his talents in various comic-con and fan fest events over the past decade in the Maritimes, while Alicia has featured her work in various exhibitions over the years.

“It was great, and we're still married so that's the important thing,” Ken jokes on working alongside his wife.

Titled “Queen of Monsters,” this design pays homage to the film Mothra.

The couple says the overall purpose of their joint project was to shed light on Lego as a legitimate medium for contemporary sculptures in a professional art setting. All the pieces featured in the gallery are purely built from Lego with no use of glue involved.

The exhibition was partially funded by a grant though the New Brunswick Arts Board, with the couple pointing out the Lego building is not a cheap passion.

“A quarter of (the Lego featured in exhibitions costs) would have been covered by the grant,” Alicia says. “And the rest would have been from our personal finances and Ken’s large store of Lego.”

The couple says they couldn’t be more proud to finally showcase their talents together.

“She’s seen herself as like a supporting player in this,” says Ken. “But for me this would not have happened without her, her contribution, her support, and I'm always incredibly proud of all of her art.”

“It was a lot of fun to have the opportunity to brainstorm with each other and say, okay, well, how are we going to incorporate Lego and paintings together,” Alicia says. “Because they're not really two worlds that you would think incorporate together.”

The exhibition will be featured in the Library Gallery on the second floor of the Saint John Arts Centre until Aug. 30. \

Check out a photo gallery of the exhibit here.

For more New Brunswick news visit our dedicated provincial page.