Petra Štefanková

Petra Štefanková (b. August 12 1978 in Bratislava) is a London based Slovakian illustrator, digital artist, designer and animation art director. She works in animation, advertising and publishing industry for clients such as the BBC, Columbia Pictures, The Economist, Channel 4, Fremantle Media and others.

She studied graphic design at Jozef Vydra's School of Applied Art in Bratislava in 1993-1997, visual communication at Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava in 1997-2003 a film and tv graphics at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague in 2002-2003. In February 2006 she moved to the UK. Since 2002 she has worked in tandem with a London based Lighting TD Roman Vrbovsky and they are founders of Animacia Creative Collective.

In December 2007 she won Channel 4's 4Talent Award for creatives from all creative industries in the United Kingdom and presented her work at GRAPHITE 2007, the digital art exhibition and conference organised by the north American and Australian chapter of the ACM SIGGRAPH at the University of Western Australia in Perth. Her work was exposed widely on shows all around the world (in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, various Japanese cities, London in the UK, USA, Argentina, Columbia, Italy, Poland, Switzerland, Spain, Germany, Alaska, Hong Kong, China, Belgium, Turkey etc).

Australian curator Andrew Chew selected her work for GAS Project exhibition along with a special guest Doze Green from NYC, one of the Top Ten Visual Artists in the world according to Stylus magazine rating.

Her work is in a collection of Museum of computer art in NY and Heritage Museum in Hong Kong as well as in a few private collections in the USA. In july 2007 she was selected for exhibition at Images 31: The Best Of British Illustration in London College of Communication a her work has been published in 200 Best Illustrators Worldwide 2007/08 by Luerzer and Expose 6 - The Best of International Digital Art published by Ballistic Publishing in 2008.

From a thousands of entrants she was also selected to exhibit within the digital art on environment issues exhibition Common Ground 2008 which will be running across China (starting during Summer Olympics in Beijing 2008), Europe in 2009 and museums and galleries in the USA in 2010.

In April 2008 in the age of 29 she was invited to join Fellowship of the Royal Society of Arts in London, the 250 years old organisation which has been at the forefront of economic, political, social, artistic thinking, a catalyst for constructive change. The Fellowship is open only to those whose achievements set them apart. The Fellows has been selected leading personalities in science, art, commerce, politics and education, in the past there were people like Charles Dickens, Stephen Hawking, Karl Marx, William Hoghart, Marie Curie, Benjamin Franklin, Nelson Mandela, Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and others who achieved something spectacular in the world history. Its Patron is currently HM Queen Elizabeth II, its President is HRH Prince Philip, its Chair is Gerry Acher and its Chief Executive is Matthew Taylor. RSA Fellows were founders of the Royal Academy of Artsand Royal College of Music in London as well.

In July 2008 she presented her illustrative work at ICON5 Illustration Salon in Roosevelt Hotel off Madison Avenue in New York City and on her return to London met Jonas Mekas with his gallerist Harry Stendhall during the screenings in Cafe 1001 in Brick Lane and Curson Soho Cinemas in Shaftbury Avenue which she found an important moment and source of inspiration for her further progress.

Awards and acknowledgements

*2008:
**Elected Fellow of Royal Society of Arts in London
**Expose 6 Master Award winner, Australia

*2007:
**Channel 4 Talent Award for hottest UK creatives
**Luerzer's Archive 200 Best Illustrators Worldwide 2007/08
**Images 31: The Best of British Illustration
**Special Mention, Festival Internacional de la Imagen, Universidad de Caldas, Colombia

*2006:
**CG Choice Award, Computer Graphics Society
**1st Rank Animago, Germany
**3rd Prize, Muestra Internacional de Arte Digital, Santa Fe, Argentina

*2005:
**Excellence Award, Toray Digital Creation Awards, Japan
**Hirosaki Award, given by Hirosaki City major, DIDO Awards, Japan

*2004:
**Honorary Mention, Donnie Award 2004, Museum of computer art, New York, USA

*2003:
**5th Prize, Tokoha CG Art Exhibition, Japan
**1st Rank, Animago, Germany

*2002:
**Honorary Mention, Toray Digital Creation Awards, Japan