PAIGE BRADLEY (b. 1974, American)

Paige Bradley’s powerful sculptures of dynamically posed figures showcase more than just physical strength and passion – they testify to the inner strength and fortitude woven into the fabric of a person’s soul. Her own personal experiences are the starting point for Paige’s work, and she then uses her skill, intuition, and sensitivity to build these stories out into universally understood creations. The unseen and often unspoken dichotomies one encounters in life – joy and sorrow, dissonance and harmony, weakness and strength, ugliness and beauty – become powerfully alive in Paige’s sculpture, as she is an artist who has the rare ability to turn abstract feeling into three-dimensional form.

Working in the figurative genre, Paige’s sculptures are anything but relics, antiques, or pastiches of figuration past. Rather, her works combine iconic media and uncommon skill with modern thought, philosophy, and psychology, speaking in the currency of our contemporary culture. Paige is also known for eschewing stylistic rules and parameters of any kind, which has kept stagnation far from her studio. In looking at the variety of thought-provoking work she has produced over her 25-year career, one can see how this mindset continues to serve her creative diversity: some of her figures sit strong and grounded in outdoor spaces; others float delicately in suspended compositions; others are sturdily wrapped in silk while stretching toward freedom. Although she primarily casts in bronze, Paige’s artwork also encompasses painting and charcoals, woodcuts, iron-bonded resin, aluminum, mixed media, or any other material she feels helps communicate her message. 

As a successful female sculptor in the 21st century – a time that is seeing women joining together, speaking out, and standing up in unprecedented numbers – Paige remains an artist of singular self-assurance and conviction, choosing to focus on feminine strength, empowerment, and the ability to overcome. “I did not struggle in the same way that my ancestors did, but I’m still subject to many inequalities and unnecessary hardships,” says Paige in the video she posted on International Women’s Day. “And I’m stronger because I learned to fight, overcome, and triumph. My artwork is about this: the hiding and emerging. The trusting, connecting, and the releasing. Allowing vulnerability. The birthing and the nurturing. Learning to love openly and to crack myself open to find the brilliance within. I hope my journey can inspire others and at the least show the world that a woman who is a wife, a daughter, and a mom can still be an artist who can shake preconceived paradigms. Once we find our unique voice in life, it is not complete until we pay it forward.”

EDUCATION

1998 Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, Philadelphia, PA

1995 Florence Academy, Florence, Italy

1994 Pepperdine University: Malibu, California and Florence, Italy

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2015 Solo Show, Greenberg Fine Art, Santa Fe, NM

2014 Celebrating Twenty Years of Sculpture, Classic Art Gallery, Carmel CA

2010 Solo Show, Ode to Art, Singapore

2008-09 Solo Show, Classic Art Gallery, Carmel, CA

2007 Solo Show, Azali Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA Celebrating a Decade with Paige Bradley, Classic Art Gallery, Carmel, CA

2006 Solo Show, Classic Art Gallery, Carmel, CA Solo Show, Forest Avenue Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA

2005 Solo Show, Classic Art Gallery, Carmel, CA Solo Show, Louis Aronow Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2004 Solo Show, Classic Art Gallery, Carmel, CA Solo Show, Forest Avenue Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2018 American Masters Exhibition at the Salmagundi Club, New York, New York

2018 Art and Winemakers’ Dinner: Winter Exhibition, Chloe Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2017 Banquet With The Artist: The Body In Motion, Chloe Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2016 Form and Figure, Santa Fe, NM

2016 Art Suzhou, China

2015 National Juried Art Show, Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition, Brooklyn, NY Affordable Art Fair, Hong Kong

2014 Dark Exhibition, ARC Gallery, San Francisco, CA Grand National Exhibition, National Sculpture Society, New York, NY 81st Annual Exhibition, National Sculpture Society, Brookgreen Gardens, Pawleys Island SC Henley Festival, London An Evening of Art, Addison Gallery, Boca Raton, FL Affordable Art Fair, Hong Kong

2013 On A Grand Scale, Panter & Hall, London, UK 100th Annual Exhibition, Allied Artists of America, New York, NY Affordable Art Fair, Singapore and Hong Kong 16th Annual Juried Competition, American Women Artists, Fredericksburg, TX Small Sculpture Invitational, Scottsdale Exhibition Gallery, AZ National Juried Art Show, Brooklyn Waterfront Artists

2012 Beyond Rodin: New Directions in Contemporary Figurative Sculpture, Rye Arts Center, NY 5th Annual Naturally Nude Exhibition, Jackson, WY

PUBLIC ART

2012 Academia with 50-foot Ribbon, St. Cloud Hospital, St. Cloud MN

2010 Academia, David A. Straz Jr. Center for the Performing Arts, Tampa, FL

2009 Any Possible Relation, Paul Mellon Arts Center, Choate Rosemary Hall, CT Vertigo, Royal Brompton & Harefield NHS Trust, Sydney Street, London

2008 Freedom Bound, Point Park University, Pittsburgh, PA Academia, Naples Academy of Ballet, Naples, FL

SELECTED REFERENCES

2017 Three To Watch, Fine Art Connoisseur

2015 Contrasting Emotions, Paige Bradley Sculptor, Cool Cities London, Teneues Publishing Group, The Dynamism of Humanity with Paige Bradley stylenochaser.com

2009 Naples Academy of Ballet, Naples Illustrated, March

2009 2008 Sculpture Installed, The Point Magazine, Winter

2008 The Visible Nude by Ellen Cutler, Sculpture Review, Summer

2007 Designers’ Own Homes, Architectural Digest, September

2005 Expressions of Figure and Form, Exhibition Catalog, Galerie du Soleil

2004 Top Ten Artists to Watch, Art Business News, February

2002 Perseverance Pays Off, Sandra Leader, Adventures Magazine, Winter/Spring

2001 Sphere of Art, Lisa Crawford Watson, The Monterey County Herald, May 1

1996 Paige Bradley, Lisa Crawford Watson, Monterey County Herald, April 21

AWARDS AND HONORS

2014 Marilyn Newmark Memorial, American Artists’ Professional League, 86th Grand National Exhibition

2013 Best Sculpture, Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition

2011 Best of Show, American Women Artists The Lindsey Morris Memorial Award, Allied Artists of America

2010 Sculpture Honor Award, Academic Artists Association

2009 Gold Medal of Honor, The Allied Artists of America, Annual Juried Exhibition Sculpture Honor Award, Academic Artists Association

2006 Third Place, 4th Annual A.R.C. Salon, Online International Exhibition

2005 Lindsey Morris Memorial Award, Allied Artist of America Show

2004 Art Students League Award, Allied Artists of America Show Leonard Meiselman Memorial Award, Pen and Brush Third Place Award, Women Artists of the West

2003 Catharine Lorillard Wolfe Art Club nominated Professional Member Young Sculptor Award, Viselaya Sculpture Competition

2001 National Sculpture Society, nominated Professional Sculptor Member

1997 Ramborger Prize, outstanding achievement at Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts

1996 Stewardson Award, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts The National Sculpture Society, Young Sculptors Competition

SELECTED COLLECTIONS, CORPORATE AND PRIVATE COLLECTORS

American Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA

Mr. & Mrs. Campion Platt, New York, NY

Albertson Corporation, Boise, ID

Angel Corella, American Ballet Theatre, New York, NY

Ballet International Foundation, Germany

Choate Rosemary Hall, Paul Mellon Arts Center, CT

Morton Swinsky, Swinksy Productions, New York, NY

Naples Academy of Ballet, Naples, FL

Point Park University, Pittsburgh, PA

J.D. Williamson Foundation, Carmel, CA

Congressman Michael Simpson, Washington, D.C.

Tomayko Arts, Pittsburgh, PA

Oberg Industries, Pittsburgh, PA

Robin Quivers, New York, NY

Nicole Kidman, New York, NY