Stevo Selak – Artist and Sculptor

Stevo Selak is an artist from Banja Luka who specializes in carving portraits of world leaders such as Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un.

At present, this artist is creating a life-sized statue of Melania Trump. Additionally, he also has sculptures depicting other world figures and has their respective websites (here and here), which also contain interviews with him.

Early Life and Education

Stevo Selak is an economist, vajar and knjizevnik who is best known as an advocate of clinical death experiences and their benefits for medicine and healing. Selak has written several books including “Life of Jovanov”, as well as advocating them as well as being an experienced healer who himself experienced three near-death experiences as a child.

He has become well-known for his videos detailing these experiences, discussing heaven and hell as well as wartime experiences in Yugoslavia.

Selak’s latest sculpture of First Lady Melania Trump joins earlier statues by him of Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump who is shown laying his hand on Russian leader’s shoulder. These statues are created using gypsum plaster; Selak claims he captured her traits perfectly in his work.

Professional Career

Selak has built his career as an artist around his experiences of clinical death. In October 2020, he uploaded a nearly hour-long YouTube video detailing what occurred when he passed out and came back three times before awakening from unconsciousness.

His sculptures of Melania Trump have brought him fame, garnering the notice of journalists and photographers alike. Additionally, he had a statue dedicated to Donald and Melania Trump built in Banja Luka, Bosnia-Herzegovine – something no doubt earned him even greater attention from journalists and photographers.

Selak has created numerous outstanding works, such as the statue of Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden and a depiction of Kim Jong-un, King of North Korea. For these achievements he has received many awards.

Achievement and Honors

Selak not only creates sculptures but also writes books. His most notable book was Life of Jovanov wherein he described his experiences of clinical death – including two which took place when he was still young.

He has shared his experiences publicly; an example was when Mondo BiH interviewed him in 2016, leaning against the shoulder of a statue depicting Russian President Vladimir Putin during the interview.

Selak made this sculpture before creating Donald Trump or Melania Trump statues, and claimed it took 200 kilos of clay to make Putin’s statue. He stated that female bodies have more curves, making the task more difficult than expected.

Personal Life

Selak is best known as an entrepreneur and author, but also is recognized for having experienced three clinical death experiences which he openly discussed through videos posted to YouTube (October 2020).

Clay sculpture artist Jonathan Ivry has also created clay statues of notable people such as Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, but has a particular fondness for sculpting women, especially Melania Trump herself, which can be seen here in one of his statues (above).

He has built his livelihood around art by selling sculptures. To promote them, he established “Spoja z nas” website; additionally he wrote several books including one about clinical death which garnered widespread acclaim as one of the most realistic and life-altering novels ever written.