LEGO Masterpiece Gallery
A dream come true for 15 Adult LEGO fans: Masterbuilds from around the world displayed at LEGO House to celebrate play and creativity
- 15 LEGO fans hailing from nine countries, sees their dream comes true as they are invited to exhibit their personal LEGO builds in LEGO House, Denmark. Visitors from around the world will be able to admire their work and gain inspiration for new building techniques.
- “Every build in the exhibition reflects great effort and creativity and bring joy to everyone who visits. We look forward to sharing the exhibition and hope our guests leave inspired to continue building their own ideas with LEGO bricks, no matter their age,” says Kathrine Kirk Muff, Managing Director at LEGO House.
25th of September 2024: LEGO® House, located in Billund, Denmark, is the ultimate LEGO destination for fans of all ages, drawing visitors from over 120 countries in 2024 alone. Since its opening in 2017, LEGO fans from around the world, known as AFOLs (Adult Fans of LEGO), have been selected to showcase their unique LEGO builds in the Masterpiece Gallery exhibition. From the 25th of September and the following year, LEGO House present a new exhibition featuring exceptional fan-built creations by 15 carefully chosen AFOLs.
“LEGO House is a global community clubhouse, where we bring together unique LEGO stories to inspire LEGO enthusiasts from around the world – and the Masterpiece Gallery is a prime example of this. Each year, I look so much forward to seeing the remarkable creations built by LEGO fans from around the world. Every build in the exhibition reflects great effort and creativity and bring joy to everyone who visits. We look forward to sharing the exhibition and hope our guests leave inspired to continue building their own ideas with LEGO bricks, no matter their age,” says Kathrine Kirk Muff, Managing Director of LEGO House.
This year, the Masterpiece Gallery exhibition is one of the most diverse and ambitious curations of LEGO models to date. With designers hailing from Australia, China, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, South Korea, UK, USA, and Vietnam. LEGO House is the pinnacle location for them to express their love of creating with LEGO bricks, their rich cultures, and their wildest design ideas.
Located on the top floor, the gallery is dedicated to highlighting these talented builders and their imaginative LEGO designs that push the boundaries of creativity. For any AFOL, having their creations displayed at LEGO House is a dream come true, offering a unique opportunity to share their passion with a worldwide audience. One of the AFOLs is Victoria Worsley from the United Kingdom. She has been an AFOL for 9 years, but her fascination for LEGO play began from references in her childhood. Victoria has created two builds for the gallery – a 1950s-style diner, and a house, both populated with LEGO Belville figures.
“I still can’t believe my builds will be exhibited at LEGO House. It feels like a dream come true. In my models, I draw inspiration from older LEGO themes, particularly those originally designed to appeal to girls, like Belville. I am extremely proud to have been selected to exhibit, and I hope that my work will inspire others, but especially girls and women to start building too,” says Victoria Worsley.
A thriving LEGO Fan community of AFOLs at LEGO House
For many AFOLs, LEGO bricks are a medium for artistic expression, relaxation, and social connection, and LEGO House has been designed to be the ultimate experience for all fans of LEGO play, no matter their age.
As the AFOL community has continued to grow year on year, now close to 25% of all visitors to LEGO House each year are adult LEGO lovers visiting without children. For LEGO House’s own Master Builder, Stuart Harris, who helps select the exhibitors for the Masterpiece Gallery, this means that the level of creativity continues to amaze him.
“The LEGO fan community continually inspires us with their creativity and technical skill, showcasing the limitless possibilities of the LEGO brick. In our selection process, we evaluate the overall theme, nice usage of elements, color, storytelling, details, and humor. We also attend LEGO fan conventions across Europe, North America, and Asia each year. I am consistently amazed by the creativity and passion of AFOLs, who reveal new possibilities with the LEGO brick that I might never have imagined,” says Stuart Harris, Master Builder at LEGO House.
One of the artists exhibiting in LEGO House is Donny Chen. He lives in Australia, working as a piano teacher. Donny has been an AFOL for 13 years, particularly focusing on innovative designs that draw on his Chinese heritage. He is showcasing three of his creations, including a golden dragon constructed from almost 7,000 pieces to commemorate the Lunar Year of the Dragon
“Every new build is a chance to learn something new, and I really enjoy tackling different challenges with LEGO bricks. For me, it’s the variety and overcoming obstacles that make building with LEGO bricks so much fun,” says Donny Chen.
Another artist contributing to the Masterpiece Gallery is Roldan Grace from the United States. He is the youngest exhibitor this year in LEGO House, being 19 years old. Roldan has been playing with LEGO bricks since the age of four, and it has played a significant role in his entire childhood. Roldan loves to create architectural models, animals, faces and more abstract sculptures. At LEGO House, he will be showcasing his impressive large Knight on Horseback model, which consists of over 11,000 bricks and is accompanied by a Scarlett Macaw and a Wandering House, to create a unique universe.
All 15 LEGO exhibitors will personally transport their intricate and delicate models to Billund. They will work together with Stuart Harris and the LEGO House team in the installation of their builds in the Masterpiece Gallery, ensuring they are presented exactly as intended, and providing them with the ultimate pride as they stand back and admire their creation in the full lineup before the doors open and the public get to enjoy the spectacle of the new exhibition.
Exhibitors at the Masterpiece Gallery:
Donny Chen, Australia
Dicken Liu, China
Roldan Grace, United States
Victoria Worsley, United Kingdom
Jessica Bavier, United States
Victor van den Berg, Netherlands
Khang Huynh, Vietnam
Nathan Don, United States
Tamami Takado, Japan
Martin Gebert, Germany
Steven Howard, United States
Takuya Fukugawa, Japan
Andrew Steel, Australia
Aiden Kessel, Australia
Jiwoo Seon, South Korea
The exhibition in the Masterpiece Gallery will be accessible to the public from the 27th of September 2024.