Petra Štefanková
Petra Štefanková is a Slovak illustrator, digital artist, designer and art director. She has worked in animation, advertising and publishing industry.

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 December 2007 she won Channel 4's 4Talent Award for young 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 with her solo shows taking place in Bratislava, Nitra, Malacky, Berlin, Prague and Washington DC. Australian curator Andrew Chew selected her work for GAS Project exhibition 2007 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 has been presented by the Museum of computer art based in NYC and Heritage Museum in Hong Kong.

In July 2007 she was selected for exhibition at Images 31: The Best Of British Illustration in London College of Communication (which repeated again in 2009) and published in 200 Best Illustrators Worldwide 2007/08 by Luerzer, Expose 6 - The Finest Digital Art in the Known Universe by Ballistic Publishing in 2008. From a thousand of entrants, she was also selected to exhibit within the digital art on environment issues exhibition Common Ground 2008 running across China (with a start in Beijing) and galleries in the US in 2010.

In April 2008 at age 29 she was invited to join Fellowship of the Royal Society of Arts in London.

In July 2008 she presented her illustrative work at ICON5 Illustration Salon in Roosevelt Hotel off Madison Avenue in New York City. Other public presentations include Les E-Magiciens, European Digital Animation festival organized by SUPINFOCOM in France in November 2008, Pecha Kucha Night in Brighton in November 2009, discussion at DOX: Centre for Contemporary Art in Prague in June 2010 and ICON6 Illustration Salon in Langham Hotel in Pasadena, CA in July 2010, ICON7 Roadshow Illustration Salon in Providence, Rhode Island, in 2012 and TEDx Bratislava 2013.

Notably, as a designer, she collaborated on an animated title sequence for the feature film Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang with Voodoodog Animation in London. The team was awarded, Silver World Medal at New York Festival, (World's Best TV and Film Awards) in 2011.

In 2012 she was part of BOND magazine Launch event and exhibition at Saatchi Gallery in London. House of Illustration in London organised event Illustrator's Christmas Fair, where she presented her work in December 2015. In 2015 she was also selected for international exhibition Between Volga and Danube organised by Russian Academy of Art in Moscow. In 2016 she took part in Prague Design Week organised at Kafka's house in the heart of Prague.

Publications include Visual Artist at Work by Michael Fleishman, Centage (2009, US), Vector Graphics and Illustration, A master class in digital image-making by Steven Withrow and Jack Harris, Rotovision (2008, UK),  Planet Alert, Revista Colectiva (2009, Costa Rica), A DGPH Project: The Ark, IdN / Systems Design, (2009, Hong Kong), 3x3 Directory (2017, 2018, USA); Drawn Vol.1 The Best Illustrators Worldwide (2017, Australia), Bezier Vol.1 The Best Vector Artists Worldwide (2017, Australia), Channel 4's 4Talent magazine 8 and 9 and many more.

Petra Štefanková is an author, designer and illustrator of children's books Moje malé more, self-published in 2016 and Čmáranica a Machuľa, published by Slovart in 2018. She has illustrated a children's book of Mária Štefánková My už vieme všeličo published by Slovart in 2017.

Awards and acknowledgements
2019:
The Minister of Culture of the Slovak Republic Award 2019, Bratislava
Artfacts Performance Award 2019, Germany
2018:
The Best Children's Book of Spring 2018, Bibiana & IBBY, Bratislava
2015:
Creative Quarterly 42, New York, Runner up
2009:
Runner up, Creative Quarterly 16, New York City
Selected, Images 33: The Best of British Illustration
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
Selected, Luerzer's Archive 200 Best Illustrators Worldwide 2007/08
Selected, 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 mayor, DIDO Awards, Japan
2004:
Honorary Mention, Donnie Award 2004, Museum of computer art, New York, US
2003:
5th Prize, Tokoha CG Art Exhibition, Japan
1st Rank, Animago, Germany
2002:
Honorary Mention, Toray Digital Creation Awards, Japan

External links 
Artfacts.net profile
Books on Goodreads.com
Toast by the President of the Slovak Republic Ivan Gašparovič
Article about Petra Štefanková's work on the blog of the RSA
Article about a workshop with Petra Štefanková on the blog of the RSA 
Let's be brief interview
Creative Digest interview
Graphite 2007 proceedings
Illustration for the cover of the Guardian
Illustration for Dialogue review magazine
Works on the web of Museum of computer art in NYC
Photo reportage from the vernissage at Mala Scena Theatre (Slovak language)
Article about a solo show in Berlin at Lite-Haus
Television documentary online (Slovak language)
Laureates of the Minister of Culture of the Slovak Republic Award 2019 (Slovak language)