Georg Schmerholz

Biography

I was born Hungarian in Transylvania, Rumania to parents of Austrian/Jewish, Armenian/Hungarian descent. After studying Engineering and Design for two years at the University of Cluj, I defected to Italy to seek personal freedom and to pursue my interest in sculpture. Influenced greatly by the Italian cultural experience, I begun carving wood there and took my works with me when I immigrated to Sweden, where I held my first exhibition in Skovde. During the fall of 1972 I moved to Canada, living in Toronto for only a short time, before heading to the West Coast, where the abundance of wood, my primary medium at the time, facilitated my rapid growth and productivity as a sculptor, turning professional in 1985. I relocated to Northern California in 2001 and live and work on a peaceful and secluded 10 acres in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains.