Career
He is known for his sociopolitical critique of contemporary Native American art Early life and higher education
Born in Minnesota in 1954, many of Bradley"s early years were in the Minneapolis metropolitan area until his family was split up and redistributed, having fallen victim to the prevailing view of what constituted an adequate family. In 1970, left Minnesota and began a journey starting in the Southwestern United States and taking him through Central and South America - where he lived for a year with Mayan Indians - before his return to the United States where he spent time among the Navajo Indians in Arizona.
After receiving training at the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA), and went on to receive a Bachelor of Arts in Fine Arts from the College of Santa Fe in 1980.
Current life
David Bradley currently lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Early work
When I first entered the somewhat glamorous world of professional art, I thought I would steer clear of politics and keep my life as simple and positive as possible.
Eventually, I realized that Indians are, by definition, political beings … I saw the continual exploitation of the Indian art community by museums in the Southwest … I witnessed multi-million dollar fraud by pseudo-Indian artists … and so began to speak out on what I saw as widespread corruption in the art world.
