"Glow in the Dark" Painting

Ivan "Cobra" Gjurcek was born in May, 1947. in Zagreb, Croatia (in that time, part of Ex-Yugoslavia). Early at primary school he showed great skill, that many would envy him on, in arts and drawing, achieving top grades.

But it was not until 1968. that he got his first works published, as a part of "Pop Drawing '69." contest. It was a contest in a local music magazine "Dzuboks" ("Jukebox"), consisted in drawing Mick Jagger's and afterwards Julie Driscoll's portraits, where he won second prize. In the meantime, he graduated as an Architect and soon get a job as an Engineer Architect, but continued to work on his artistic side in a free time, more as a hobby.

His first nude woman drawings series were done in 1971., and a year later, he got some of these works published in a popular Yugoslavian men's magazine "Magazin" (sort of a "Playboy" thing). That year, he got some recognition and was nicknamed as "Yugoslavian Aslan" by the editors in that very same magazine. He continued his work on nude series and in 1988. he got his works and short comics published in another popular local magazine "Erotika". Two years later, the war in Croatia started, and the drawings in "Erotika" were the last ones of Ivan's art to be published. During that time, his prime interests were turned towards war in his country, so his works reflected that fact. In 1991. he participated in the charitable competition titled "For Croatia's Freedom" and the same year he did a series of drawings titled "Cro Army". In February 1992. Croatia gained its independence.

Although Ivan is architect by trade, he has been drawing/painting fine art (most of it erotic) for about 35 years now. He has the talent, the technique and the drive that many would envy him on, so it always struck as a surprise that he never have managed to accomplish what some would call success with his artistic skills. Also, as weird as it may sound for someone that has spent over 35 years painting, he never had any exhibitions of his works. Could it be because of the mentality of people here, or the place he is living in; we don't know. Despite all that, he still uses most of his time drawing, especially since his retirement. The recent big project he worked on was finishing a collection of 55 erotic/porno greeting cards for his 55th birthday few years ago.

Until this day, Ivan has gathered an impressive gallery of his works. Despite that fact, he remained unknown to wider audience.