NYC Grey - Lego

Same city, different temperature. Where NYC Red rendered New York in red, NYC Grey captures it in cool tones: a black night and, at its center, a line of white light drawn from one edge of the canvas to the other. It brings to mind an avenue seen from above, straight in the way only Manhattan knows how to make them, with streets crossing it at right angles. No skyline, no landmark: the city plan alone is enough to identify it.

Everything is organized around this central axis. White, pearl gray, aqua green, pale yellow, lavender: the light is cold, almost mineral, and thickens in the lower third into a broad intersection where gray becomes the true subject of the work. On either side, the cross streets extend horizontally and shift to orange, then red as they move farther away, like embers at the edge of the image. The background is a deep black, barely lifted by brown, bottle green, and midnight blue.

Up close, the grid dissolves into the material. Plates, smooth tiles, grilles, round pieces, and technical elements create a dense relief in which each gray has its own sheen. There is no shortage of surprises: small orange flowers, touches of anise green, a tile printed with “KEEP OUT” lost in the right-hand section, and a number 5 at the very bottom. These details can only be discovered by getting closer, reminding us that each of these pieces has had a first life.

Brick Board Builder assembles each artwork by hand, without a predetermined design. The LEGO® bricks he uses are all reclaimed: arriving in bulk from across France, notably through the nonprofit organization Rejoué, they are cleaned and then sorted one by one before reaching the studio. A straight line maintained without a plan, using mismatched pieces: that is the entire singularity of NYC Grey, which no one could recreate identically.

A unique artwork, neither printed nor reproduced, numbered and accompanied by its certificate of authenticity.