We are proud to announce the 2026 Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize Jury Panel, comprising influential figures in the art world, including gallerists, curators, artists, and commercial and philanthropic arts champions. Beautiful Bizarre Magazine Co-Founders Danijela Krha Purssey & Richard Purssey, Owners & Directors of Modern Eden Gallery, Kim Larson and Bradley Platz; representatives from our major sponsors, and five esteemed contemporary artists: Brad Kunkle, Ed Binkley, Bastien Lecouffe Deharme, Matthias Verginer, Franz Szony, along with Co-Founder of IX Arts Patrick Wilshire and Gallery Owner & Curator Vicki Fox. Each Jury member excels in their field of expertise and is making waves around the world with their exceptional work. Get your work in-front of this respected Jury Panel, enter today.
Giving the practices of representational artists validation and visibility, particularly in the commercial gallery and museum sector where it is still hard to get representation, is what the Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize aims to achieve.
Danijela Krha Purssey, Beautiful Bizarre Magazine Co-Founder, and Editor-in-Chief
2026 Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize Jury Panel
Painting Category
Brad Kunkle // Artist
After selling out his debut solo exhibition in New York City on opening night in 2010, Brad Kunkle has become internationally known for his unique use of gold and silver leaf in contemporary oil painting.
His themes explore the shedding of dogmas inherited from previous generations, intuition, and the power of feminine energies as guides for seeking enlightenment in symbiosis with the natural world.
His works are in private collections all over the world, the permanent collection of the New Salem Museum, and in a digital time capsule on the Moon as part of the Lunar Codex in partnership with NASA’s Artemis program.
Brad is represented by Arcadia Contemporary in New York City and Pontone Gallery in London.
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Drawing Category
Ed Binkley // Artist
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Ed Binkley is an award-winning fantasy artist living and working in Madison, Wisconsin. He received the First Place Grand Prize and Body of Work award in IBA-10, the Second Place Grand Prize in IBA-13 as well as First Place in the Drawing Category, multiple category awards across several issues, an ASFA Chesley Award, and Gold and Silver awards in “Spectrum: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art”.
His work has been featured in many other publications worldwide including feature articles in Beautiful Bizarre Magazine and Spectrum Quarterly, as well as multiple solo exhibits at Copro Gallery in Santa Monica, California, Beinart Gallery in Melbourne, Australia, and is part of the permanent collection of the Naia Museum in Roche-en-Forte, France.
Ed has worked with distinguished clients including Tool, Lucasfilm, and Wizards of the Coast.
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Photography Category
Franz Szony // Photographer
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Franz Szony, was born in Reno, Nevada, and studied photography and illustration at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.
For the last 14 years he’s lived and worked in Los Angeles photographing images for Disney, Warner Bros, Broadway, and Vegas shows.
He has photographed advertisements and editorials for Gaultier, Moschino, Amato Couture and has been featured in publications like Harpers Bazaar, Vogue and Beautiful Bizarre Magazine.
His conceptual portraiture combines renaissance aesthetics with “technicolour” surrealism. Franz has been quoted as saying he’s an “illustrator who paints with a camera”.
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Sculpture Category
Matthias Verginer // Artist
Matthias Verginer was born in Bressanone, Italy (b. 1982). He shares the studio with his brother Christian and his father Willy, both also represented by VCRB Gallery.
After a series of humouristic works, where human figures and animals were joined together in an absurd relation, Matthias radically changed his way of working. His sculptures are now built up of wooden layers with fabric in between, thus creating a scenery of isarithms. Other works bear lines of pencil, emphasising the inner character and nature of people. But even more so, they invite us to reflect on the mechanisms in which we perceive our reality.
Matthias explores the joy as well as the pain and difficulties of human existence. The sculptures are realistic in their resemblance to reality, but alienated in their meaning.
His work has been showcased in solo and group exhibitions across Europe, the USA, Canada and Taiwan.
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Digital Art Category
Bastien Lecouffe Deharme // Artist
Bastien Lecouffe Deharme is an artist and storyteller. He is an award-winning illustrator, writer, game designer, and university professor whose work focuses on the creative process.
Born on the shores of Brittany, France, in the early 1980s, he now lives and works in the United States.
His work explores dark, symbolic imagery, built on the tension between beauty and decay. Drawing from ancient and modern myths, forgotten legends, and tragic narratives, his images sit at the intersection of fine art, speculative fiction, and visual storytelling.
He is the great-grandson of Lise Deharme, the Surrealist poet and writer, and Paul Deharme, the radiophonic wizard.
His illustrations have appeared on book covers for authors including George R. R. Martin, Philip K. Dick, Frank Herbert, H. P. Lovecraft, Tanith Lee, Clive Barker, and Chuck Palahniuk. His clients include Wizards of the Coast and Magic: The Gathering, Random House, Tor Books, National Geographic, Riot Games, Blizzard Entertainment, HarperCollins, and Marvel. Today, he divides his time between his artistic practice and career, musical projects, and the development of Retrocity, a dystopian world that serves as the basis for his first illustrated novel and the upcoming game.
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Imaginative Realism Category
Patrick Wilshire // Co-Founder of IX Arts, IX symposium & IX Gallery
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Patrick Wilshire is the Co-Founder of IX Arts, dedicated to the promotion, recognition and elevation of the art of imaginative realism. It is the organization behind the groundbreaking IX symposium (introduced in 2008) and IX Gallery (introduced in 2016), both dedicated exclusively to contemporary imaginative realism.
In 2025, he was honored to accept the position of Director of the Eidolon Museum of Fantasy and Imaginative Art.
He is the author of Visions of Never: The Collection of Fantastic Art, (2009), The Art of the Dragon: The Definitive Collection of Contemporary Dragon Paintings (2012), as well as the forthcoming History of Imaginative Realism. He was honored to be a guest curator for AT THE EDGE: Art of the Fantastic, mounted at the Allentown Art Museum, PA, in 2012, as well as the 2016 IX Weekend held at the Delaware Art Museum in Wilmington, DE.
More recently, he has served as an imaginative art consultant for museums in both North America and Asia as well as filling the role of “Art Historian” for the documentary film Eye of the Beholder: The Art of Dungeons & Dragons.
He has been proud to regularly serve on juries and panels for a range of art competitions, including the Art Renewal Center’s annual Salon and the Infected by Art juried annual.
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Emerging Artist Category
Vicki Fox // Gallery Owner & Curator,
Quirky Fox Gallery
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Quirky Fox was established by its owner, Vicki, in 2012 as a way to escape an unfulfilling career path. Over 12 years later it has transformed into the ultimate way to escape with a gallery filled with new contemporary and representational pieces from both emerging and established artists.
Vicki believes artists and galleries should work collaboratively, with both benefitting from the relationship and galleries acting as guides to help people connect with the works. One of her main focuses is to ensure the artists she represents feel supported and part of a community. Vicki is a staunch advocate against A.I. in art. She has contributed to several articles and chooses to curate an A.I.-free gallery with all artists choosing to avoid the use of A.I. at any stage of the creative process (including their initial concept design and final image).
She has worked as an online contributor to Beautiful Bizarre Magazine and worked with a number of emerging artists to navigate the gallery scene. Quirky Fox donates to an environmental or mental health charity each year through its anniversary exhibition, causes strong to Vicki’s heart.
In addition to curating and running the gallery, she works as a custom picture framer with a passion for moving away from boring white decor-friendly frames toward pieces that enhance the artwork and continue to tell the artist’s story.
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Beautiful Bizarre Magazine
Danijela Krha Purssey // Editor-in-Chief & Co-Founder
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Danijela Krha Purssey is an entrepreneur, and the Editor-in-Chief and Co-Founder of Australian based, international contemporary art magazine, Beautiful Bizarre Magazine.
She is deeply passionate and committed to her vision to help shift the paradigm in the global contemporary arts industry regarding what is defined and accepted as contemporary art.
Danijela has created a carefully curated, unique contemporary arts experience via all the Beautiful Bizarre Magazine touch points that inspires and champions emerging and mid-career creatives both locally and around the world.
Danijela founded Beautiful Bizarre Magazine in 2013 with her husband, Richard Purssey. In the 13 years since the launch of Beautiful Bizarre Magazine she has published 52 magazines, over 3,000 web articles, curated 22 exhibitions in 4 countries, launched the Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize, and shared the work of countless creatives from all corners of the globe to both the magazine readership and the magazines 2 Million + social media followers. Beautiful Bizarre Magazine has become not only an influential player in the contemporary art scene, but more importantly a voice, a tribe and platform for creatives whose work doesn’t always fit neatly into the traditional fine art “box”.
In late 2016 Danijela was awarded the prestigious AMP Foundation ‘Tomorrow Makers’ Award, and grant funding in recognition of her services to the visual arts, and to expand Beautiful Bizarre Magazine.
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Beautiful Bizarre Magazine
Richard Purssey // Technical Director & Co-Founder
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Richard Purssey is an ICT Director who is also a lifelong collector and appreciator of contemporary art. During the life of Beautiful Bizarre Magazine Richard has interviewed some of the finest contemporary realist artists and photographers from around the world, and been intimately involved in the creation of Beautiful Bizarre as a leading voice in the world of figurative art in all mediums. He has also been closely involved with the fine arts during his time as CIO of one of Australia’s most prestigious public galleries, the Art Gallery of New South Wales.
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Modern Eden Gallery
Kim Larson & Bradley Platz // Owners & Directors
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Kim Larson is an entrepreneur with a background in psychology, design, and sculpture. Her passion for art began at a young age and continues today through her private collection and professional work. She was a founding member and longtime Director of North Beach First Fridays (2010–2020) and has served on the Board of Directors for the San Francisco Art Dealers Association, where she remains an active member. For over 15 years, Kim has been the owner and gallery director of Modern Eden Gallery, a cornerstone of San Francisco’s contemporary art scene. In 2020, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors presented her with the Certificate of Honor for her dedication and outstanding contributions to the arts community.
Bradley Platz is a successful gallery owner and director with a background in fine art painting and Art History. Over the last 10 years, Platz has planned, curated, installed, juried, and organized contemporary art exhibitions throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. He is a strong advocate for ecommerce and content marketing in the Arts. Bradley is also a practicing oil painter.
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Arts Champion | Painting
Emilie Dietrich // President & Creative Director, RAYMAR
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Emilie is the President and Creative Director of RAYMAR, makers of fine art painting panels used by professional artists worldwide. RAYMAR is a second generation family art supply business that has been dedicated to the craft of fine art materials since 1998.
After graduating from the University of Notre Dame’s business school, Emilie worked as a foreign exchange and commodity broker with the Chicago Board of Trade. Financially successful yet creatively stifled, she left finance in search of a more artistic life and attended Parsons School of Design in NYC. In 2008, Emilie was called to carry on her father’s legacy. She then took up the reins of RAYMAR and grew the company it into what it is today.
As an artist herself, Emilie discovered the importance of good art materials to advance one’s work. Now it is her mission and passion to craft art panels with the world’s finest materials to serve as the foundation for one’s artwork. It is her hope that with the right materials, artists will be empowered to bring their creative visions to life, and ultimately add more beauty and meaning to the world.
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Arts Champion | Emerging Artists + Imaginative Realism
Catherine K. Gyllerstrom // Collector, Art Consultant, Owner & Art Director, BearWolf Books
Catherine K. Gyllerstrom is a Greek American art collector, consultant, and the Owner and Art Director of the independent publishing house BearWolf Books.
Her passion for Imaginative Realism and Illustration Art began at an early age and has become the foundation of her work within the arts community. Catherine’s significant private collection spans two continents, houses numerous Chesley and Spectrum Award winning pieces, and has graced the walls of museums across the United States.
After graduating from Harvard University and while pursuing her doctorate in History at Auburn University, Catherine formulated the concept that would become BearWolf Books, a publishing house that specialises in heavily illustrated hardcovers and fine art limited editions. As Art Director, she has worked with a variety of artists and directed pieces that have appeared in the noted art annual Spectrum. Catherine also works with family offices as a consultant for their purchases of original art.
Her current projects include: curating a fairytale themed exhibition for the Mazza Museum opening this September and a collection of Sheridan le Fanu’s gothic novellas, featuring the photography of past Beautiful Bizarre Photography Award finalist Psyché Ophiuchus. Through her private and professional pursuits, Catherine remains dedicated to promoting the growth, recognition, and preservation of the creative arts.
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Arts Champion | Digital Art
Joshua Zika // Founder, INPRNT
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Joshua Zika is an entrepreneur and the founder of INPRNT. Established in 2006, INPRNT offers fine art printing services for artists around the world.
Joshua began assisting his colleagues with printing and distribution of their work after attending Ringling College of Art and Design.
Over the years, he has grown what started as a passionate hobby into a worldwide service. Joshua and the team at INPRNT continue to have that passion for helping artists, working with thousands of talented creatives to deliver gallery quality prints to their customers. INPRNT allows artists to focus on what they love: creating.
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Arts Champion | Drawing
April Carter // Collector & Curator at PoetsArtists, 33 Contemporary Gallery
With a creative career spanning 25 years, April Carter Grant has contributed to the brand presence of some of the biggest names in travel, gaming, and consumer goods. She also has designed lettering and fonts used by the titans of mass publishing and media. Along the way, she has championed independent art through collection, curation, criticism, and publication, often as part of a longstanding collaboration with Didi Menendez and 33PA Gallery. Some of this work is included in Dr. Samuel Peralta’s Lunar Codex.
A keen eye for emerging talent focuses her collection on small sculpture, illustration, pop surrealism, and figurative works featuring exalted female subjects. April is a graduate of the storied American Academy of Art and many creative and business certificate programs but is most gratified by tracking the career development of artists driven by unique viewpoints and techniques.