Gabor Svagrik was born in Szeged, Hungary in 1970. His family immigrated to the United States and settled in Illinois. Svagrik studied at the American Academy of Art in Chicago where he was fortunate to study with nationally recognized watercolorist Irving Shapiro who stressed the importance of composition, design, and drawing. Svagrik devoted his studies to life drawing and illustration and went on to join the Palette & Chisel in Chicago. He always found the pure and simple beauty in masters of the past such as Daniel Garber, Frits Thaulow, Ernest L. Blumenschein, and Edgar Payne.