Building Black Civilizations: Journey of 2000 Ships’ Artist Says LEGOs Are A Tool For Imagination

The Afrofuturistic architectural designs of the artist Ekow Nimako evoke the powerful and inspiring imagination they seek to inspire in their audiences. In Building Black Civilizations: Journey of 2000 Ships, Nimako envisions an Afrofuturistic landscape brimming with strength, power, and liberation. Sprawling metropolises nest small buildings, regal towers, and fantastical details like the unhinged jaw of an enormous snake in their midst.

Ekow Nimako is an artist of Ghanaian and Canadian descent. He creates contemporary sculptures using LEGO bricks as a platform to explore themes of identity, history, and space. His work ranges from large-scale installations to smaller works that can be found in public spaces.

Artist Transforms Thousands Of Black LEGO Bricks Into Vast, Afrofuturistic Cities

In Building Black Civilizations: Journey of 2000 Ships, Nimako explores the story of Mansa Abu Bakr II and his Atlantic voyage. The artist says that “the story of the Atlantic crossing is one possible example of pre-Columbian contact and the founding narrative behind my latest works.”

The installation was commissioned by the Brooklyn Museum for its African American Art Initiative (AAAI). The exhibition features an expansive architectural landscape constructed with hundreds of thousands of black LEGO bricks that depicts a vast Afrofuturistic cityscape brimming with strength, power, and liberation. Sprawling metropolises nest small buildings, regal towers, and fantastical details like the unhinged jaw of an enormous snake in their midst.

Ekow Nimako’s vast Afrofuturistic cityscapes are the embodiment of his vision for a new kind of black culture. The artist’s work is all about exploring and creating space for black people to live in, work in, and love.

Through vast environments constructed with hundreds of thousands of black LEGO, Ghanaian-Canadian artist Ekow Nimako envisions an Afrofuturistic landscape brimming with strength, power, and liberation. Sprawling metropolises nest small buildings, regal towers, and fantastical details like the unhinged jaw of an enormous snake in their midst, structuring the architectural realms around legacies of myth and optimism.

The artist is interested in exploring how we can create a new world through the lens of our own history and culture. He sees art as a way to engage with what has been lost from our pasts so that we can move forward together into a bright future.

The artist has a background in architecture, design, and technology but he also has a passion for traditional African art. He grew up in Ghana where he studied architecture before moving to Canada where he studied at Concordia University until he graduated with an MFA degree in Visual Arts & Technology in 2016. Nimako now lives in Montreal where he continues to work on his projects.

Nimako’s sculptures build on the mythologies of African civilizations and offer a new way to think about what was lost in their erasure by European colonialism. His fantastical structures speak to centuries-old traditions, while still responding to the brutal realities faced by black communities today. By bringing these memories into the present, Nimako offers hope for the future—and knows that children can reshape this reality through creativity and imagination.

Nimako’s work is incredibly artistic and complex, with a vision that should be celebrated. At the same time, he’s also found ways to use LEGO in ways that are both new and inventive. Clearly, there’s an active community of people using LEGO to create amazing and imaginative works. Hopefully, Nimako will inspire other imaginations, too.

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Ekow Nimako

Website | Instagram

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Via: Thisiscolossal

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