BIO

Zuzana Pustaiová (born 1990 in Levice, Slovakia) started her interest in visual arts with painting but soon switched to photography, which she studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Bratislava, Slovakia, and University of Applied Sciences in Bielefeld, Germany. She completed her doctoral degree in arts in January 2022 and become the doctor of arts.

She has received numerous awards in contemporary photography (nomination C/O Berlin Talent Award 2024, nomination MAST grant 2023/2024, 3rd prize LensCulture Art Photography Award 2023, finalist at Grand Prix and Book Award Images Vevey 2023/2024, Grand Prix at the Rovinj Photodays 2021, finalist at the Images Vevey 2021/2022, finalist at the Grand Prix Bialystok Interphoto 2021, 1st Prize at the Rovinj Photodays 2018, finalist for the Lucie Foundation Scholarship in Los Angeles 2017, etc.), and in 2018 she was named Slovak Photographer of the Year. She has exhibited internationally in Europe and Canada. Her first art book, based on the work One Day Every Day (2022), is shortlisted for Paris Photo Aperture Photobook Awards 2022.

Pustaiová is a member of the Reflektor – platform for self-published photobooks in Austria and the Association of Slovak Professional Photographers in Slovakia. She works as a freelance photographer, lecturer, educator, photo editor and editor-in-chief of Fotonoviny – Newspaper of photography. She lives and works in Levice and Bratislava.

Pustaiová is represented by Photon Gallery.

© Tomáš Vavák

AWARDS

2023 nomination, C/O Berlin Talent Award 2024, C/O Berlin, Berlin, DE

2023 Grand Prix, Rotlicht festival, Vienna, AT

2023 nomination, MAST Photography Grant 2023/2024, MAST Foundation, Bologna, IT 

2023 shortisted, Grand Prix Images Vevey 2023/2024, Vevey, CH

2023 shortisted, Images Vevey Book Award 2023/2024, Vevey, CH

2023 3rd prize, LensCulture Art Photography Award, online

2022 shortlisted, Paris Photo x Aperture Photobook Award, Paris, FR / Aperture, NY

2022 2st prize, Contemporay photobook, The best photobooks from Central and Eastern Europe in years 2021-2022, Month of Photography in Bratislava, SK

2021 finalist, Bialystok Interphoto Grand Prix, Bialystok, Poland

2021 Grand Prix, Rovinj Photodays, Rovinj, Croatia

2021 1st prize, Rovinj Photodays, Rovinj, Croatia

2021 shortisted, Grand Prix Images Vevey 2021/2022, Vevey, CH

2019 Student personality of academic year 2018/2019, Bratislava, SK <category: Culture and Art>

2019 Honorable mention, Latitude Life APS, Italy / New York

2018 Photographer of the Year 2018, Bratislava, SK

2018 2nd prize, Different Worlds, Photon Gallery, Ljubljana, SI

2018 1st prize, Rovinj Photodays, Rovinj, Croatia

2017 nomination, PhotogrVphy Magazine Grant, online platform

2017 finalist, Lucie Foundation Scholarschip, Los Angeles, USA

2015 finalist, FOTO ROKA 2015, Bratislava, SK

2014 3rd prize, Politics, photography and present, Bratislava, SK

2014 1st prize, Portfolio review, Month of Photography, Bratislava, SK

2014 3rd prize, Just For Laughs  2014 International Visual Arts  Competition Montreal, Canada

2013 1st prize, FOTO ROKA 2013, Bratislava, SK

2012 3rd prize, FRAME O12, Praha, CZ

EDUCATION

2018 – 2022
Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Bratislava, SK
Doctoral degree / led by Jana Hojstričová & Bohunka Koklesová

2011 – 2017
Academy of Fine Arts and Design, Bratislava, SK
BA / MA / Studio about Photography led by Silvia Saparova

2016
University of Applied Science, Bielefeld, Germany
MA / Led by Prof. Katharina Bosse and Prof. Axel Grünewald

2007 – 2011
Seconary art school of Ladislav Bielik, Levice, SK
Photography design led by Gabriel Kosmály

CONTACT

zuzka.pustaiova@gmail.com
IG @zuzanapustaiova | @pustaiova_photography

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 FULL CV