Welcome to Issue 52 of Beautiful Bizarre Magazine! This issue’s cover celebrates the Chinese zodiac, with 2026 marking the Year of the Horse. While Allison Reimold’s stunning painting technically features a unicorn, we think it captures the spirit beautifully. For this issue, we invited our readers and socials community to vote for their favourite cover, and Lady and the Unicorn was the clear winner by a wide margin. Thank you for having your say – we’re so grateful for your input, and we hope you love the final cover as much as we do.
You can get your copy of this special issue in print here, and digital download here. Or read more about whats in this issue here.
Enjoy our Editor-in-Chief’s Note from the Editor, published in Beautiful Bizarre Magazine Issue 52
We have a super power: ART!
The last couple of years have seen many of us struggle with mental health issues. But we have a super power: ART! Science now recognises that art, whether you are the artist or the viewer can help us with issues like stress, anxiety, depression, and loneliness. Participating in arts activities can build self-esteem, self- acceptance, confidence, empathy, and self-worth.
Science now recognises that art, whether you are the artist or the viewer can help us with issues like stress, anxiety, depression, and loneliness.
“In times of heightened emotions, many people turn to art as a form of self-expression or for emotional catharsis. Art provides the ultimate form of release, helping to process complex emotions or gain much-needed clarity. This can spark a physical response: Visits to art museums, for instance, have been shown to reduce stress and even blood pressure. Given the crucial role of the prefrontal cortex in analysing and interpreting art, both viewing and creating art can boost cognitive abilities. For example, when people create art, they exercise numerous cognitive skills while reflecting on complex intellectual themes.
Viewing art further stimulates brain activity by encouraging people to form new connections and consider others’ perspectives.” [The Neuroscience of Creativity: Exploring How Art Affects Mental Health And Cognitive Function, Rocky Mountain College Of Art + Design].
Viewing art further stimulates brain activity by encouraging people to form new connections and consider others’ perspectives.
I am profoundly thankful for the role art plays in supporting my mental health. To engage with it daily – through my work as Editor-in-Chief of this magazine, as a curator or collector, or simply as a devoted gallery visitor – is a privilege I never take lightly. I hope art brings you the same sense of solace and joy!
2026 Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize: Catherine K. Gyllerstrom Imaginative Realism Award
It’s that exciting time of year again – entries for this year’s Art Prize are officially open! Thanks to the generous support of our incredible sponsors, we’re awarding over $77,000 USD in cash and prizes. This year also marks the launch of a brand-new and highly anticipated honour: the Catherine K. Gyllerstrom Imaginative Realism Award. We are deeply grateful to Catherine for her longstanding support of this special genre through her personal philanthropy, her art collection, and her arts-related business. Catherine owns an independent publishing house specialising in illustrated fantasy, mythology, and stories for young readers – BearWolf Books.
Through this new award, Catherine aims to further support artists working in Imaginative Realism across all traditional mediums. If you identify your work as Imaginative Realism and you paint, draw, or sculpt, we warmly invite you to enter this new award category, as well as any of the seven award categories that align with your chosen medium.
Each year our esteemed artist jurors change, giving artists who enter the best possible opportunity to win. This year I am proud to announce the following artists will be judging their respective areas of expertise: Brad Kunkle [RAYMAR Painting Award], Ed Binkley [33PA Drawing Award], Franz Szony [MPB Photography Award], Matthias Verginer [Sculpture Award], and Bastien Lecouffe Deharme [INPRNT Digital Art Award]. Gallery Owner Vicki Fox of Quirky Fox Gallery is our juror for the BearWolf Books Emerging Artist Award, and Patrick Wilshire, the Co-Founder of IX Arts will be the juror for the new Catherine K. Gyllerstrom Imaginative Realism Award, along with Catherine herself of course.
Visit the beautifulbizarreartprize.art and enter today!
We also have two very exciting curated group exhibitions this year: Return to Beauty, our first exhibition with Outré Gallery in Melbourne, Australia in April [currently on view]; and our seventh exhibition with Modern Eden Gallery, in San Francisco USA in November – Glimmer, where the winners of this year’s Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize will also exhibit.
As always, this issue of Beautiful Bizarre Magazine is filled with the inspiring stories of 50+ incredible visual artists from around the world. I hope you enjoy the read!
Much Love xo
Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief
Beautiful Bizarre Magazine
