(1959, Čeladná – 2011, Martin, Slovakia) Kotrba lived in Rožnov pod Radhoštěm from his childhood. From 1974 to 1978 he studied stone sculpture at the college of decorative arts in Uherské Hradiště under Jan Habarta and František Nikl. After his unsuccessful application to study at the Prague Academy of Fine Arts, he spent two years working as a conservationist at the Wallachian Open-Air Museum in his home town. He was later admitted to the Academy of Fine Arts, where from 1981 to 1987 he studied monumental sculpture under Stanislav Hanzík and Miloš Axman. From 1990 to 1993 he returned to the Academy as an assistant in Hugo Demartini’s studio. In 1992–1993 he spent a semester studying at the Minerva Art Academy in the Dutch city of Groningen. He later returned to Rožnov, where he taught drawing at an art school in 1994–1995 before moving to the Education Faculty at the University of Ostrava; from 1996 he headed the Faculty’s sculpture studio. Kotrba was awarded his associate professorship in 1999. He was recruited to head the figurative sculpture studio at the Prague Academy of Fine Arts from October 2012, but he died tragically on 17 May 2011 before he could take up this post.