Born in Zagreb on 23 January 1961. Graduated sculpture in 1985 at the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan. The first eleven books that he wrote, illustrated and designed were published by Franco Cosimo Panini from Modena (1992). Since then he has illustrated many books, book covers etc. He is also active and present on the art scene with paintings and sculptures. Junaković has shown his illustrations at almost all the major world exhibitions, and picture books that he wrote and illustrated have been published in over thirty countries (USA, Japan, Australia, France, Belgium, Canada, China, Switzerland, Israel, South Korea, Mexico, Spain, Italy, Finland, Holland, Austria, Germany, Brazil, Argentina,Portugal, Slovenia, Croatia, Czech Republic etc.).In 2001 the book Animagicals, published by Hand Print in New York, was listed among theTop 10 of Amazon.com (editor’s choice).He had solo exhibitions in Mexico City, Florence, Bologna, Brussels, Genova, Siena, Munich, Mantua, Monza, BustoArsizio, Lissone, Bari, Budapest, Lisbon, Modena, Naples, Zagreb, , Ljubljana, ... In 2007 he had solo exhibition in the Klovićevi dvori Gallery,Zagreb, at which he showed many sculptures,paintings and illustrations. The exhibition was also mounted in Naples in the prestigious Palazzo Arti Napoli, and in 2009 in the Modern Art Gallery in Genova, Nervi. In 2010 he won many prizes for the animated film My Way, production Bold Studio in Zagreb (based on the book My Way, text and illustrations Svjetlan Junakovic, Algoritam, Zagreb, 2007). For his solo exhibition of sculptures in Gliptoteka HAZU, Zagreb, (2015) he won the most important Croatian award Vladimir Nazor. Svjetlan Junaković is associate professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Zagreb, where he has been teaching illustration, drawing and graphic design since 2010. He has taught illustration at the International Summer School in Sarmede (Treviso, Italy) 2002-2015, and at many workshops in Rome (Museo nazionale delle arti e mestieri popolari), Verona (Galleria d’arte moderna), Padua (Artatelier), Monza, Mirano, and at the international school of Illustration in Valladolid in Spain. Junaković is mentor in graduation works, as part of master-studies, at the Academy of Fine Arts in Linz in Austria, and in 2009-2011 he taught illustration at the master studies at, Facolta di Scienze della Formazione dell’Universita di Padova, Italy, and at the master studies of illustration in Madrid (i-con), Spain. Since 2016 he has been publishing his books exclusively with The Magic Elephant Books, Guilin, China.
