Barbara Šalamounová (b. 1964) is a Czech illustrator, writer and artist specializing in animation and live-action film, comic-book author, and educator. She was born in Halle (Saale), Germany, but grew up in Prague in an artistic German-Czech family. Both her parents, Jiří Šalamoun and Eva Natus-Šalamounová, were artists and university teachers.
Her mother, Eva Natus-Šalamounová, also came from Halle (Saale). Having graduated from the Burg Giebichenstein School of Art and Design, she completed her postgraduate studies in the studio of Prof. Hoffmeister at the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague, where she specialized in Film and Television Graphics. She later became a professor at the Burg Giebichenstein School, where she founded a studio for illustration and animation.
Her father, Jiří Šalamoun, was for three years a Meisterschüler at the Leipzig Academy of Fine Arts (HGB), interspersing this with his studies at the Academy of Fine Arts in Prague. Both parents worked for German and Czech publishing houses.
Barbara Šalamounová graduated from the Academy of Arts, Architecture and Design in Prague (VŠUP), where she studied Television and Film Graphics. In her second year, she created the character Ropák for Jan Svěrák’s film Ropáci [Oil Gobblers]. The film won awards at many festivals, including a Student Academy Award in Los Angeles in 1988.
Having been engaged by the American agency Young & Rubicam and as a storyboard artist for other agencies, and after her illustrations appeared in magazines including Reflex, she left for Halle (Saale) for her postgraduate studies at the Burg Giebichenstein School of Art and Design.
Her animated film Copak není moucha mojí sestrou? [Isn’t the Fly My Sister?] (2006), a result of Czech-German financial cooperation, made her the first filmmaker in the Czech Republic to combine 2D and 3D digital animation.
She works freelance. Her most recent comic-book work is the Trampoty člověka Sekory [The Troubles of Sekora the Human] (2024), which was shortlisted for the 2024 Muriel Award for Best Screenplay and won the 2025 Golden Ribbon Award for Literature for Children and Young Adults in the Comics category.
She has also worked as a teacher, most recently at the Ladislav Sutnar Faculty of Design and Art in Plzeň, where she founded a Studio for Comics and Illustrations for Children, running this until 2019. In addition to her own work, she oversees, through the Šalamoun Foundation, the artistic legacy of her parents and their copyrights, which include those to the Maxipes Fík [Figs the Megadog] comic books and animated TV series.
Golden Ribbon - Best Comics (2025)
