After completing high school (gymnasium), he received a state scholarship, and in 1866 he also studied iconography with an itinerant Italian artist, then living in Belgrade.

He has made numerous public monuments, among his best known works are busts of Vuk Karadžić, Prince Miloš and Đura Daničić.

[3] Today, Ubavkić is considered the premier Serbian sculptor in an age when art flourished to its maximum.

He was indeed the creator of many public monuments at the time of the rule of Prince Miloš Obrenović.

Among his most important artistic works realized according to the cannons of realism or even verism, are the many Belgrade monuments executed by Ubavkić, including some in other regions of Serbia, particularly the monument to King Milan Obrenović in the Church of St. Paraskeve in Ćurlina.