Bradley Arthur apprenticed for the metal sculptor Hugh Dumont in Coconut Grove, Florida in 1970. His work with found objects developed into award winning assemblages that used common materials in simple and original ways. Arthur graduated from the College of Fine Arts at the University of South Florida, Tampa in 1975. He attended Sarah Lawrence College's Lacoste School of the Arts in Provence, France in 1977. During his studies there he met and later apprenticed for the Japanese master stonecarver Yasuo Mizui, in Paris. He worked with Mizui, on a 30 ton limestone monument located at a University in Nancy, France. The following few summers he studied in Pietrasanta, Italy and worked in bronze and the marble studio of Silvero Paoli.
Arthur's first New York City exhibition was in 1978. In 1979 he established a studio in a Historical Landmark loft building on Thomas Street in Tribeca in Lower Manhattan. In 1983 he was a guest lecturer at the Center for the Arts at New York Law School and worked closely with its director Gustave Harrow, the renowned artists' rights attorney. They worked on Copyright and Artist Authorship Rights issues and litigations. His experiences working with Harrow and the judiciary brought the use of "words as art " and symbols into new perceptions and deeper levels. During this period words and how words are used and misused became a focus of Arthurs' work. The 1990 solo exhibition titled "Steel Ideas" debuted his early WORDZWORKX® sculpture at the Brad Cooper Gallery in Tampa, FL. Also in 1990, Arthur completed a major commission for the Miami Jewish Home and Hospital for the Aged at Douglas Gardens in Miami,Fl. A life-size bronze symbol of a family of intertwined figures titled "Generations" this work explores the theme of interdependency and connections using figurative and abstract organic forms
Themes of social reflection and interaction between the work of art and the viewer are key elements of the WordzWorkx® sculpture series. Welding and casting metal into statements, the words become 3 dimensional objects the viewer interacts with and contemplates. Becoming cognitive as well as aesthetic. The objects are statements as symbols relating to our media manipulated society. During the 1990's, Arthur's curiosity developed a series of "words as objects" , using common social icons as building blocks for new uses of primal symbols. In 2001 he won two public art commissions from Hillsborough County to use the collected guns from Cease-fire of Tampa, a gun buy back program in collaboration with the Sheriff's Office. The first work "Components of Public Safety I" was recently installed in the historic landmark district of Tampa called Ybor City. It is sited in front of the Sheriff's Operation Center headquarters. "Components of Public Safety II, Fallen Hero" is located on Gunn Highway in front of the Sheriff's District 3 office at the new Citrus Park Mall, in Tampa, FL.
His artwork has been exhibited in 11 solo shows and more than 65 group exhibitions including the Grand Palais in Paris, Phillips de Pury & Company and Lincoln Center in New York. His sculpture is held in public and private collections here and abroad. See resume
Arthur's 1982 sculpture "ChairMuse" a steel and stainless steel found object construction is sited in front of New City Hall Plaza on the Franklin Street Mall in downtown Tampa, Florida, and his 1990 life-size bronze "Generations" are listed in the Smithsonian Institutions Registry of Outdoor Sculpture.
