Bret Price is a contemporary sculptor of monumental steel. Throughout his career, Price has been interested in the challenges of raw material against the forces of nature, first beginning his explorations in clay and gradually working up in size and complexity. Whether the work is large or small, his focus is to convey an unexpected sense of movement and balance.
Price received his MFA in ceramics from the California Institute of the Arts in 1975, and within the year he began teaching at Chapman University in Orange, California.
Daydreaming during a staff meeting one day, he had the idea to apply intense heat to steel to soften and manipulate the material in a similar fashion as clay. He made his first metal sculpture in 1979 for a new athletic facility at the university. This method of making allows Price to sculpt on a large scale, and he has created pieces up to thirty-four feet tall and weighing several tons.
Price has been collected into public and private collections throughout the United States, Europe and Asia, notably the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Pepsico Collection in New York.
He lives and works in Orange County, California and spends part of the year working out of a sprawling sculpture farm in New Bremen, Ohio. He is a past board member of the Mid South Sculpture Alliance. He has been invited as a lecturer and guest artist at a number of colleges and universities around the country.