Robert Bradford grew up in a fairly bland South London suburb and wanted to become an artist from a very young age.
He did his Foundation at Beckenham School of Art , his B.A. in painting at Ravensbourne College of Art in Kent and an M.A. in Film at the Royal College of Art, London.
After college for he worked as a mental health worker for several years in order to support his work (and not be dependent upon sales). At that time his work primarily focused on painting and drawing but also included experiments with film video and photography. He showed widely in Great Britain during this period exhibiting at the I.C.A,. London. Arnolfini Bristol and Richard Demarco Galleries Edinburgh amongst many others.
Whilst lecturing at Maidstone College Of Art he was offered visiting lectureship at San Diego State University in California U.S.A. where he then lived worked and exhibited for five years, and where he has pieces in many Public and Private Collections. His exhibitions
there include San Diego Museum of Art, Bernard Jacobson Gallery and Stella Polaris Gallery (both Los Angeles).
Upon his return to England Robert continued his interest in mental health and trained and practiced as a psychotherapist part time in London and Bristol whilst switching his art career to focus upon sculpture, initially in the area of public art. He began a series of more than 40 pyrotechnical fire sculptures and other interactive works, which continued through his most recent move to Cornwall in 2001 where he is well known for his five annual Beast Burnings on Bodmin Moor and for his large scale Bombus Bee built for the Eden Project in 2001/2.
In 2004 Robert began experimenting with a series of sculptures which utilise plastic toys as their main modelling material, and which have now attracted consistent international attention. After trials with two unsatisfactory construction methods, he began screwing the toys into wooden armatures, which proved both strong and highly adaptable as a method,
Works from this series have been showing in London Paris New York Amsterdam Milan Thessalonika and Qatar
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