Mike Stimpson

The LEGO mini-fig has become a huge part of popular culture, a childhood favorite with replaceable body parts that just can't be beat, though Leslie Ash is certainly trying. For an artist whose main subject always hits the bricks, check out Mike Stimpson. A Midlands-based computer programmer with a love of photography and "a bizarre toy fascination", Stimpson's pics pose Lego figs in an impressive array of situations ranging from recreations of classic photos and portraits, to riffs on Star Wars almost as hilarious as Episode 1. The latter consists mostly of whimsical Stormtrooper shots, including one covered in rose petals a la American Beauty, another, homeless one holding the sign "Will help build battle station for food", and a half-naked lady-trooper shot through a window from the POV of a voyeur, who must be saying to himself "Those are no moons!" Classic b/w photo nods take on Henri Cartier Bresson's reflective man-jumping-over-water "Behind the Gare Saint Lazare", Edward Muybridge's 16-shot experiment "Horse in Motion", and the celebrated portrait of Che Guevara, which, thanks to LEGO's recently created beret, exhibits perfect Fidel-ity to its subject. Getting even more highbrow, he's also reproduced a series of oils, including Rene Magritte's "Son of Man", and Goya's "The Third of May 1808", which might be Leslie's birthday, but you wouldn't know it.