David Bradley (b. 1954) is a Minnesota Chippewa painter and sculptor whose politically charged, formally inventive works have made him one of the most distinctive and consequential voices in contemporary Native American art.David Bradley was born in Eureka, California, on March 8, 1954, and spent most of his childhood in Minneapolis and on the White Earth Ojibwa Reservation in Chippewa, Minnesota. After two years at the University of St. Thomas, he joined the Peace Corps and lived among Mayan Indians in Guatemala for nearly two years, an experience he has described as a encounter with essentials that changed him forever and deepened his understanding of his own heritage. Drawn to the Southwest after his return, he attended the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, graduating first in his class with a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree. He went on to study at the University of Arizona and the College of Santa Fe.Bradley's Art StyleBradley has developed a unique narrative folk style that ranges across political commentary, art historical parody, and wide-ranging cultural observation. He is known for reimagining iconic images from Western art history and popular culture, placing figures such as the Mona Lisa, Whistler's Mother, and American Gothic into contexts that expose the contradictions and absurdities of how Native Americans have been represented and misrepresented. His palette is bold and his compositions immediately legible, carrying their messages with a directness and wit that does not diminish their seriousness.David Bradley and the Politics of Native ArtBradley has called his life and his art a symbolic vision quest. Beyond the studio, he has been an active advocate for Native American rights and cultural integrity, helping lead a legal campaign against fraudulent artists falsely claiming First Nations origin, and working to encourage young Indigenous artists away from the mass commercialization of Native American artifacts. As a member of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, he has consistently argued that Indigenous peoples must reclaim their own identity on their own terms, both politically and artistically.LegacyBradley was the first artist to win top awards in both Fine Art categories of painting and sculpture at the Santa Fe Indian Market, and has received fellowships including the Southwestern Association of Indian Art Fellowship. His work has been exhibited at the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington D.C., the Heard Museum in Arizona, the Plains Indian Museum in Wyoming, the Minneapolis Institute of Arts, and internationally at the American Indian Art Invitational in Lima, Peru, among many other public and private collections.