Tony Lordi was born in Newark New Jersey in 1940. He studied Art and Music at Arts High School, The Art Students League and at Newark State College where he received a Masters Degree. In his early twenties he taught Art in the Bloomfield, Public Schools and then at the County College of Morris where he became a Full Professor and Working Artist. He occupied a studio at 12 West Blackwell Street in Dover, NJ from 1981 to 1998. He was one of a group of 20 Artists who had studios there and founded the Blackwell Street Gallery. The group was known for exhibiting larger experimental work from 1984 to 1988.

Most of Tony Lordi's "Work" is deeply rooted in the Dada Tradition and is based on Vintage Found Objects. His concerns are Pop Culture and Classic American Icons. The result is a Modern Symbolism, from non-objective images to Famous Landmarks. The inspiration seems to come from all sorts of objects that are easily found in everyday life.

He had his first New York exhibition in the summer of 1988. Jack Gallery in Soho exhibited his series of 25 Empire State Buildings made with found objects and different construction materials. The exhibition got unprecedented News coverage on TV, including Channel 2 News in New York and well as National and International TV on CNN Headline News Television. The work was then exhibited at over 20 different galleries and museums including; The Everhart Museum in Scranton, The Eiffel Tower in Paris, the Phyllis Rothman Gallery at Fairleigh Dickinson, Michael Ingbar Gallery, New York, Nahan Gallery, New York, Fredrick Clement Gallery in Montclair & New York, The Noyes State Museum, The Zhejiang Museum in China, Circle Gallery in San Francisco, Chicago and New York, as well as The Empire State Building itself. New York University's Broadway Windows, was one of the first galleries to exhibit The Empire State Building Series and through the years have presented many other exhibits of "New Work" by this Artist.

Tony Lordi continues to work out of his Lafayette Studio in Northern New Jersey.