Born in Hungary, Ivan became interested in art at an early age. He drew anything that caught his fancy:  comedians, street scenes, his self-portrait, etc. He was a regular visitor at the Budapest Museum of Fine art.  He took extra art classes in high school and attended life-drawing classes as a young adult. He painted landscapes and still-lives as well as abstract compositions. He participated in a number of art exhibitions and was among the founding members of a summer art camp in Pula, Hungary.

He emigrated to the United States in 1980 with his wife, Agnes Jaroka, also an artist.

He has lived and worked as a freelance artist in New York City creating signs, window displays and decorations for stores. He continued to paint and participated in art shows.  He took college courses at Hunter College in New York, and after moving to New Jersey, he earned a BA in Fine Art at Montclair State University. Subsequently, he earned a Certificate as an Art Educator.  

Ivan has taught art in private and public schools.  He began to create shaped, monochromatic paintings in 1994.  In 2001 he exhibited them in a solo show at The Belleville Public Library in Belleville, NJ. Two of these works earned him a place at the SoHo-Chelsea International Art Competition Winners’ Exhibition in 2004.

Ivan has also created stage sets and props for various theater productions for New Jersey schools as well as a community theater.  He has also created murals.

Ivan and Agnes live in North Jersey and have two adult children, Maia and Marcel.