Barbara Kastelec (b. 1976) holds a Master's degree in painting. Her creative opus spans painting, illustration, animation, and video. She lives and works in Ljubljana.

After completing the natural-sciences track at Gymnasium Vič, she finished her painting studies in 2001 at the Academy of Fine Arts and Design, University of Ljubljana, graduating under Emerik Bernard and Nadja Zgonik. In 2004 she earned her Master's degree at the same faculty under Gustav Gnamuš and Aleš Erjavec. Since 1997 she has shown her work in solo and group exhibitions in Slovenia and abroad. She has taken part in several international projects, in 2004 as art leader of Let's Realize the White Paper Through Art in Wrocław, within the EU Youth for Europe programme. Since 2005 she has led creative workshops and courses for children, youth, and adults, including entrance-exam preparation. She has held the status of independent cultural worker since 2006. In 2022 she received the official recognition of significant artistic works. In 2025, together with Igor Tavčar, she made the website Find the artist. The visitor is invited to distinguish between works created by Barbara Kastelec and works generated by artificial intelligence. The site is conceived as a Hangman game, originally working-titled Hang the artist.

Food motifs are at the heart of her practice — on large formats Barbara Kastelec first depicted indulgent chocolates, bananas, and other sweets, later turning her attention to nutritional interdependencies and to the microcosms of seeds, pollen, moulds, fungi, plants, and animals. She works with intense colour, varied techniques, and broad strokes. The philosophy and art of Japan and China are close to her. Since 2019 she has been especially drawn to slime moulds, whose forms continue to surprise — not only artists, but also scientists.