Bruce McLean is a Scottish sculptor, performance artist and painter. McLean was born in Glasgow and studied at Glasgow School of Art from 1961 to 1963, and at Saint Martin's School of Art, London, from 1963 to 1966. At Saint Martin's, McLean studied with Anthony Caro and Phillip King. In reaction to what he regarded as the academicism of his teachers he began making sculpture from rubbish and unbeknown to him would later be considered one of the early proponents of recycling materials for use in making art.
McLean has produced paintings, sculptures, ceramics, prints, films and books. He was Head of Graduate Painting at The Slade School of Fine Art and has had solo exhibitions including at the Tate Gallery, The Modern Art Gallery in Vienna and Museum of Modern Art, Oxford. In 1985, he won the John Moores Painting Prize. McLean continues to live and work in London.