Robert Brady

Robert Brady is a Bay Area-based artist who has been making sculpture in clay, wood, and bronze for over 40 years. Born in Reno, Nevada in 1946, Brady was introduced to art making in high school. During his senior year, he enrolled in a ceramics class where he made his first vessel– a ceramic pitcher. He continued his creative studies at the California College of Arts and Crafts (now California College of the Arts), graduating with a BFA in 1969, and then at UC Davis, achieving his MFA in 1975. In addition to his studio practice, Brady has lectured and led workshops nationwide, and taught at California State University Sacramento for over 33 years. Although Brady began his career as a ceramicist, in the 1980s he found a passion for wood, and now works in several media. His sculptures range from geometric abstraction to figurative representation, prioritizing form, color, and imagery. Thematically, he frequently draws from his own life experience, an interest in change and discovery, and ritual objects.  

Brady has exhibited his work across the nation, including the 2016 Craft in America exhibition California Handmade: State of the Arts at the Sam & Alfreda Maloof Foundation for Arts and Crafts, and he has received recognition for his creative contributions, including multiple NEA fellowships and the Aileen Osborn Webb Award from the American Craft Council. His work is in the permanent collections of the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Oakland Museum of California, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, among other institutions.