Robert Bridgewater was born in Victoria in 1971. He obtained a Bachelor of Fine Art from Monash University in 1992 when he also won the National Gallery of Victoria Trustees Award. He went on to complete a Graduate Diploma of Fine Art at the Victorian College of the Arts in 1995 from where he had also received the Post Graduate Encouragement Award the previous year. In 1995 he won the Kangaroo Sculpture Award and was also highly commended for his entry in the Helen Lempriere National Sculpture Award, 2003. Robert lived and worked in London during an Australia Council Studio Residency in 2000 and was artist in residence at The Ernst Mach Foundation, France in 2003.
