The Bologna Children's Book Fair has announced the winner of the 59th Bologna Illustrators' Exhibition: Ukrainian illustrator Maria Haiduk. This was reported on the fair's Facebook page. Haiduk was awarded the International Illustration Prize from Fundación SM.
"The Jury members were particularly impressed by the impact and potential of the artist’s work, which balances boldness with sensitivity," the fair wrote on its page.
Maria Haiduk received the award for her project "Killing the Gods", an artistic exploration of humanity's relationship with the wild nature and reality.
"I sincerely hope that this will draw more attention to the issue of genocide that humanity inflicts on nature and animals. I am grateful to my mentors Ivan Serhiyiv (Serbia) and Nina Ignatova (Spain) for their guidance, as well as to Vitalii Zemliansky (Switzerland), Doctor of Bioecological Sciences at the University of Zurich, for his help in writing the scientific text," she wrote on her Instagram page.
The Illustrators' Exhibition is part of the Bologna Children's Book Fair, which took place from March 31 to April 3. In 2025, over 21,000 works from 89 countries were submitted to the competition. A total of 324 artists reached the final. Four other Ukrainian artists also made it to the finals: Oksana Drachkovska, Sofiya Kupriyanova, Anna Ivanenko, and Olesya Sekeresh.
Maria Haiduk is a student at the Lviv National Academy of Arts and hails from Kherson.
