Richard Bray

Richard Bray is a master sculptor, painter and photographer. Born in London, he studied Photographic Arts at Polytechnic of London (University of Westminster) followed by an M.A. in Fine Art at Norwich School of Art & Design, before settling in Cambridgeshire in 1989.

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Influenced by the early British Land art movement as well as ideas of conceptual and abstract art, Bray’s work both reflects and is informed by its  natural environment and his sculptures commune with the architecture, the land and the landscape in which they find themselves as well as with the position and perspective of the viewer. Bray's remarkable sculptures are immediately recognisable by their mixture of skill, elegance and sophistication as he transforms different woods into remarkable shapes and forms  that seem to bend, curve and fild in ways that seem to defy the material of wood itself.

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Having lived in Tanzania in the 1980’s, Bray was inspired by the landscapes and woodlands of the region where he began experimenting with the structure and form of diverse woods, experiences which transformed his practice and inspired a life-long commitment to ethically sourced and sustainable materials. “We have a very strong emotional bond with wood – lets hope we don’t lose it”, he councils. For Richard Bray, “wood has a human life time, we are surrounded by it, trees are a big part of the world we live in. As a material, it is warm and easy to work, woodlands and trees figure in so much of the world’s mythology and origin stories.. the grain runs through each work and the colour comes from the way the light reflects on this natural surface...”

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In 2007, Bray was elected to the Royal Society of British Sculptors. His work is held in important private and public collections, inlcuidng a number of Cambridge Colleges, throughout the East of England, nationally and internationally.