Biography

Todji Kurtzman was born in San Francisco California in 1970, and grew up the son of an architect and interior designer.

Todji’s unique sculptures are known across North and South America and Asia for their sublime expression, archetypal form, and signature style with perspective.  Todji lived and had a sculpture studio in Rio de Janeiro and he embraces the best of North and South American culture and wisdom.  Gisele Domingues Araujo was part of the the Todji Sculpture team from 2013-2020.

Todji’s monumental and pedestal sculptures are held in collections in the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Peru, France and Thailand.  Todji studies Brazilian percussion and guitar and has played drums with Brazilian bands for audiences of up to 40,000 during Carnival in Rio de Janeiro.

Todji exhibited his sculptures for eight consecutive years at Burning Man, also Art Basel Miami, The New Orleans Jazz Festival, The Sundance Film Festival, and many other art and music festivals and charity events.  Todji’s sculptures can currently be seen in sculpture parks, public places, and private collections on at least 4 continents.

Todji began sculpting as a child and graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in art from the University of California Santa Barbara, and then  studied traditional figurative sculpture at the New York Academy of Art and taught at the Art Institute of Portland.  Following graduation from art school he began a nine year career in the clay animation industry as an intern on the stop-motion animated feature film “James and the Giant Peach.”  As a stop motion animator Todji produced high end animation for ABC, AOL, Disney, ESPN, HBO, FOX, MTV, NBA, UPN, WB, HBO and Saturday Night Live.

Todji speaks Brazilian Portuguese and Spanish, and embraces the goodness of all humanity in all its colors, faiths, and orientations everywhere.

Thank you for your interest in Todji’s work.  It is patronage that keeps him working as an artist, and for this he is deeply grateful.

 

 

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