Ekow Nimako was born in Montreal and studied fine arts at York University, intending to pursue creative writing. When employment in writing and as a musician (he plays guitar and drums) didn’t take off, Nimako realised the possibility that his hobby of building miniature LEGO® brick birds might lead to a career after his first Toronto exhibit, called Aviarageddon in 2013.
Working in bare feet and sometimes putting in 16 hours a day on a piece, Ekow doesn’t work from sketches, plans or blueprints – building instead by intuition. He’ll spend months building a single sculpture, sometimes spending an entire day getting a single feature right.
The five pieces that Ekow has contributed to Brick by Brick are from his Building Black: Mythos series. Building Black is an exploration into the black identity and what that means, referencing afro-futurism, mythology and the metaphors of West African proverbs. The works are incredibly detailed, with Flower Girl alone containing over 18,000 individual LEGO® Elements.
Find out more about Ekow Nimako at https://ekownimako.com/
Images: Samuel Engelking
