Inside 54 of Beautiful Bizarre Magazine, with artist Mab Grave’s magical painting Iolanthe Trusts Her King on the cover is on sale now! Contact one of our Stockists or Shop Online, but don’t miss this special Issue. Take a peek at what’s inside below.
Inside Beautiful Bizarre Magazine Issue 54
Miel Krutzmann will tell you, without much prompting, that a single critical voice in a room full of compliments is enough to crush his soul. For someone who has painted walls the size of buildings, he is surprisingly Morrissey about the whole thing. One half of the celebrated Dutch duo Telmo Miel,Miel has spent the last two years stepping deliberately into his own light, and the solo work he’s been quietly building in his Amsterdam studio is something else entirely. Dreamlike, meticulous, strange in the best possible way, figures suspended mid-state between the human and the surreal, mundane objects like pillows and backpacks elevated into near-mythological territory with a painter’s obsessive hand.
“It’s highly strange being human, which is probably why we all look for things to hold on to that make sense.” – Miel Krutzmann
There is a moment, when looking at a work by Spanish-born American painter Alberto Ortega, that you are transported to a very specific time and place. The time? 1950s. The place? Suburban America. This transportation occurs because Alberto does not just paint streetscapes of post-war suburban America, he paints dramas captured under the stark glow of street-light, action frozen in time and delimited by pools of light and swathes of shadow.
Mab Graves is one of the most quintessential, iconic, and recognisable figures in contemporary pop surrealism. The artist, the muse, and her art intertwine in a trinity that is rarely achieved by living artists. Mab is one of the very few artists who, within a human life span, has created an influential, genre-defining aesthetic, a body of work that is revered by collectors, and who, along the way, has become a respected and adored figure in the art world. Mab’s signature pink-hair in real life invites the interpretation that she is the pink-haired female character that appears throughout her paintings.
“My paintings are my children. My paintings are the ultimate act of creation that I will be able to achieve with my body in my lifetime. Each piece is precious to me. My paintings will be all that remains to prove that I was ever here.” -Mab Graves
There’s a rich, timeless quality to Patrick J. Jones’ body of work. His subjects stand at both the beginning and end of time and space, in a place where ancient mythology and modern artistic sensibilities bleed together. Each one of his paintings feels like an exquisitely detailed piece of cinema that captures fleeting moments from epic stories of old. Forbidden lovers gaze intently at one another with lustful stares. Enchantresses carve spells into unwilling victims. Warriors rise to the heavens in breathless triumph. Moments of power, pain, pleasure, and sacrifice transform into legends soon to be passed down through the generations.
“I want to pull people out of the mundane, algorithmic routine of daily life and remind them that the imagination is vast and untamed.” – Patrick J. Jones
A veil of reverent silence seems to surround the symbolist paintings of Stephen Erik Schirle. Those precious, solitary moments when time marvellously stands still, making room to think, feel and shed a tear of memory and heartache. As contemporary realities transform our bodies into well-oiled machines trained to produce, multitask, and scroll at lightning speed, Stephen crafts his layered, jewel-like portraits of sublime grace and human emotion in deliberate slow motion, oil on linen, their soulful beauty enticing viewers to press pause and bask in their soft light.
Further on Miles Johnston describes himself as “a very angsty existential kid”, someone who could not put the big questions, age, death, the sheer strangeness of being a conscious thing in a body, out of his mind for long, and who found in art “an antidote” to the dread that crept back in whenever the ordinary noise of school and friends and girlfriends quietened down. “I felt like I had no one to talk to about it,” he says. Drawing gave the future a shape again, something to grow into rather than something to fear.
“Drawing gave the future a shape again, something to grow into rather than something to fear.” – Miles Johnston
Time to get inspired as we learn what Richard Demato, owner of RJD Gallery, would like to add to his personal collection in this Issue’s Curator’s Wishlist.
The Plunge, 2023
Oil on linen on ACM, 59″ x 37.8″
At rjdgallery.com
Welcome to the shadows, where buried emotions come to life and old wounds lie open. Where haunting memories look us straight in the face with big, brave eyes. Beatriz Bradaschii plunges through the depths of the past, conscious and subconscious, in rich layers of symbolism, moulding dreams and visions into meticulous compositions; demystifying the soul in buttery brushstrokes of oil and unprocessed pain.
In the richly symbolic paintings of Aneka Ingold, enigmatic women dwell in surreal worlds where memory, myth, and personal experience intertwine, focusing on themes of identity, resilience, and transformation. Aneka’s work draws on a visual archive of historical and contemporary imagery, photography, memory, and imagination. These elements are intuitively combined into narratives that evolve organically throughout the creative process.
Vintage porcelain figurines, lavish interiors, powerful women and stories suspended between memory and imagination populate the distinctive world of Erica Rose Levine. Erica’s paintings transform porcelain figurines into protagonists of imagined worlds. Subtly uncanny, the compositions possess a cinematic quality, hinting at larger narratives while leaving stories unresolved. In doing so, she invites viewers to imagine the lives, histories, and emotions unfolding beyond the artwork.
Ethereal light blooms from the fringes of renowned fantasy photographer Lillian Liu’s subjects. Like sun filtered through clear water, this signature effect gives Lillian’s works a dreamlike quality – but a deeper look could leave one questioning if the photos are truly dreamlike at all. The textures of glimmering metal, lusciously woven textiles, and the skin and hair of the models themselves grounds her images in reality. The captured moments are surreal and somehow simultaneously real without discordance.
Omar Rayyan captivates us with full page reproductions of his darkly whimsical and folklore-laden paintings inside this Issue’s Lookbook Editorial.
There’s a quiet sense of wonder that lingers within Rebecca and Stephen Dornsife’s art collection. Art has always played an important role within both their lives, but becoming art collectors was never something that they purposefully set out to do. Their collection is a tender garden that has blossomed thanks to their combined love for art over the course of thirty years.
In this issues’ Collector’s Profile, we discover Rebecca & Stephen Dornsife’s passion is grounded in nature and the complexities of the human condition.
“We are so honoured to be stewards of the originals we currently own. There are so many artists that we follow and would love to collect. So when we discuss any potential acquisition, this is the first thought.” – Rebecca Dornsife
In the Quick Q & A editorials we ask Helena Minginowicz, Sandi Calistro, Giulia Ferla,Emma Hapner, Nanami Shimoju, and Yukiko Sakurai to answer the same four questions:
- How does art retain its meaning and value during times of uncertainty, such as war, environmental crises, and economic instability?
- What would your art look like if no one ever saw it?
- How does your mental health influence your creative cycles, and vice versa?
- How does your art define you as a person?
In this Issues’ Beautiful Bizarre Artist Directory editorial we highlight the work of many exceptional artists and photographers including: Victor Wang, Lara Hochreiter, Camille Kathryn Wiseman, Jeremy Mann, Kate Balfe, Alexandra Manukyan, David Derflinger, Xavier Escala, Brian Bailey, Lïva Vilemsone, Jennifer Hudson, Maya Mekira, Joe Vaux, Ana Priscila Rodriguez, Augustina Miknevičiūtė, known as LUNARIA, Jen Weissenbacher, Carlos Quinto Kemm,Kym Lee, Amy Row, Vini Naso, Elvira Anna Paula, and Lauralynn Featherpistol.
In this issue’s Lust Haves editorial, we are thrilled to share with you some of the most beautiful and bizarre treasures from around the world, thoughtfully curated by our team to adorn your body and home.
Inside Issue 54: Designstuff,Atelier 24, Sweet Destructor Ceramics, Normann Copenhagen, The Creeping Moon, Suko Home, Maison Balzac, Gast Studio, Fleurstudios, Wildlife Garden, Atelier Terra Madre, and Sage x Clare.
In our Letter from the Editor, Danijela Krha Purssey welcomes you to the pages of our 54th Issue of Beautiful Bizarre Magazine, and reflects upon the importance of asking… how can you add more whimsy into your daily life?
“As children we embraced whimsy, but most of us learned to suppress playfulness in order to fit ideas of adulthood, productivity, or social acceptability. Adding more whimsy is one simple, low-effort way we can weave a little magic, pleasure, humour, and joy into our daily routines – at home, at work, and wherever life takes us.” – Danijela Krha Purssey
And last but never least, enjoy an amazing and always beautiful collection from Our Community, including: @gelofiiish, @alexbaumgaertner_illustration, @s.walkowicz.nowak,@drisbyjeeva, @lisa_schubert_art, @linapoluna, @luciaholm, and @beatakovacsart.
All this inside Issue 54 // September 2026, which showcases some of the best and most inspiring emerging and mid-career artists of our time.
Visit our online store and enjoy Beautiful Bizarre Magazine Issue 54.
