Ben Uri Research Unit

Born: 1978 Bratislava, Slovakia

Year of Migration to the UK: 2006

Biography

Illustrator, digital artist, designer, painter, art director, and author, Petra Štefanková was born in Bratislava, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia) in 1978. Between 1993 and 1997, she studied graphic design at the Jozef Vydra School of Applied Art in her home city. Following this, she pursued visual communication at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design in Bratislava, graduating in 2003. Her education continued with a focus on film and television graphics at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague in 2002. In 2006 she immigrated to London to pursue further education in the arts and to further inspire her artistic practice. More recently, she participated in a short course at Central Saint Martin’s, University of the Arts London (UAL) in 2016.

Štefanková is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice spans graphic design, illustration, painting, design, filmmaking, writing, and book creation. Her professional background, which includes stints in animation, advertising, and publishing, informs her interdisciplinary approach, blending contemporary art and design principles. Having trained in graphic design, Štefanková often gravitates towards a flattened aesthetic; her pictorial language is defined by simplified forms that act as signs, symbols, and a type of visual shorthand. This approach, coupled with her authoring of texts, films, and books, underscores her versatility as an artist. She employs a vibrant and whimsical style, characterised by organic shapes and bold outlines, reminiscent of both Western psychedelic aesthetics of the 1960s and children’s cartoons from Central and Eastern Europe during the same period. The work often features curvilinear lines that give the overall composition a sense of rhythm. Her palette is typically bright and varied, using flat areas of colour to create a playful and lively composition. Figures and forms are stylised, simplified, and often reminiscent of Pablo Picasso’s exaggerated profiles. Parallels may be seen between her work and certain types of Art Nouveau, particularly the illustrative work of Alphonse Mucha, with his emphasis on flowing lines and stylised natural forms. There are also echoes of the bright, bold colours and simplified figures seen in the work of artists associated with the Fauvist and Expressionist movements, though Štefanková's work possesses a more light-hearted and decorative quality.

Štefanková has established an international career. Her work in the UK commenced in 2007 and includes varied projects, exhibitions, awards and initiatives. In 2007, she won Channel 4’s 4Talent Award, a prize recognising emerging talent across creative industries. The same year, her illustrative work was featured in the exhibition, Images 31: The Best of British Illustration, at the London College of Communication (LCC), an honour she received again in 2009. In 2008 she was elected a Fellow at the Royal Society of Arts (FRSA) in London, where she had the opportunity to share ideas and experiences with leaders of various industries. Around 2010, she advised on ‘Futurising,’ an event hosted by the LCC. Also, in 2010, Štefanková collaborated with London-based Voodoodog Animation, contributing to the animated title sequence for the film Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang, for which the team was awarded the Silver World Medal at the New York Festival World’s Best TV and Film Awards in 2011. The same year, she contributed to the charity project Memories Book in aid of Maggie’s Cancer Centres. A digital portrait of the émigré Lithuanian-American filmmaker Jonas Mekas by Štefanková was displayed at the Saatchi Gallery in London in 2011 as part of the BOND magazine launch. In 2019, she contributed an artwork to Parky Life, a project helmed by the UK agency Havas Lynx. Her work reached a broader audience in 2022, with a painting featured in the ‘A-list Artists’ segment of the UK edition of Vanity Fair. Furthering her association with the RSA, 2023 saw her painting exhibited at RSA House in Lond, accompanied by a screening of her animated short film, Little Pixies and Colours (Farebníčkovia a farby) during the RSA Fellow Artists’ Network Film Night. Her work is discussed in publications such as Vector Graphics and Illustration, A master class in digital image-making (2008) and Illustration: A Theoretical and Contextual Perspective (2024).

Štefanková’s career has been marked by several international awards. In 2004 she received the Excellence Award at the Toray Digital Creation Awards in Japan. In 2007, she was named one of the 200 Best Illustrators Worldwide by Lürzer’s Archive. The following year saw her work featured in Expose 6 - The Finest Digital Art in the Known Universe by Ballistic Publishing, as well as being awarded the Expose 6 Master Award in Australia. Her contributions to children’s literature were acknowledged in 2018, when she received the Best Children’s Book of Spring award in Slovakia. This was followed in 2019 by the Minister of Culture of the Slovak Republic Award. Petra Štefanková lives and works in Bratislava, Slovakia. In the UK public domain, several of her publications are held in the RSA Library.