2024 Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize: 33PA Emerging Artist Award Winners Announced!

Sponsoring the Beautiful Bizarre Emerging Artist prize gave me an opportunity to reconfirm that artists are still creating original and refreshing work. It was my pleasure to nurture these artists to continue creating and flourishing in their craft.

-Didi Menendez, 33PA CEO, Marketing Director & Curator

Thank you & Acknowledgements

Once again, we would like to thank all of the artists that entered and shared their work and their artistic passion with us. It was such a pleasure to immerse ourselves in the work of so many creatives, working across varied mediums and styles, and reading their stories.

Beautiful Bizarre Magazine’s Editor-in-Chief Danijela Krha Purssey has the pleasure of curating each issue of the magazine and our exhibitions. The Art Prize entries will continue to give her a plethora of new ideas and choices to pursue in future. So thank you again for your interest in the Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize, we very much hope to see how your work has grown and developed in next year’s Prize.

We would also like to sincerely thank the 2024 Jury Panel, particularly the Emerging Artist category Judge Didi Menendez of 33PA, for giving her time and expertise to the panel. Additionally, We warmly thank the artist Judges:  Michael Parkes (Traditional Art juror), Kirsty Mitchell (Photography juror), Erika Sanada (Sculpture juror) and Karl Ortiz (Digital Art juror), as well as the Directors of Modern Eden Gallery, Kim Larson & Bradley Platz.

To our major sponsors: Tracey Maigne & Keeley Gerard, Owners and Directors of Musonium Gallery; 33PA‘s CEO, Marketing Director & Curator, Didi Menendez; RAYMAR President & Creative Director, Emilie Dietrich; Yasha Young Projects Founder Yasha Young; and the Owner & Art Director of BearWolf Books, Catherine K. Gyllerstrom – our deepest gratitude for supporting this year’s Prize. It is through your support and generosity that the Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize is able to acknowledge and uplift so many incredible artists and photographers from around the world.

As always a huge thanks to the Beautiful Bizarre team for their dedication and hard work on behalf of the prize and winners all-year round.

Our sincere thanks to this year’s emerging Artist Award sponsors listed below. It is through their generosity that the Emerging Artist Award Winners will be able to enrich their practice.

33PA Emerging Artist Award

The 33PA Emerging Artist Award 1st prize winner will receive:

• $3,000 USD cash, generously donated by 33PA, a diversified contemporary realism gallery, art community and publication.
• Deco Pro (Gen2) LW generously donated by XPPen. XPPen is a globally notable brand celebrating digital art innovation, providing digital drawing products, content and services to encourage artists to pursue their dreams and authentic self-expression.
• A beautiful, specially commissioned glass art award trophy.
• The opportunity to exhibit in the prestigious Beautiful Bizarre Magazine exhibition at Modern Eden Gallery, in San Francisco, USA, alongside 70+ of the world’s best contemporary representational artists.
• Exposure to a successful commercial gallery’s collector base with the opportunity to sell their work.
• 12 month social media advertising package (Beautiful Bizarre Magazine: 1 million+ followers across all social media platforms).
• Winning artwork printed in the December 2024 issue of Beautiful Bizarre Magazine, as part of the Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize editorial.
• Exclusive in-depth interview published on the Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize and Beautiful Bizarre Magazine websites+ shared on social media.
• Profile listing [including artwork gallery] on the Beautiful Bizarre Artist Directory for 12 months. The go-to platform for artists, curators and collectors to discover exceptional artists and explore their work.
• A year’s worth of inspiration – a print subscription to Beautiful Bizarre Magazine.

2nd prize winner will receive:

• $1,750 USD cash, generously donated by Principle Gallery, a fine art gallery with branches in Alexandria, VA & Charleston, SC, focusing on contemporary realism since 1994.
• 6 month social media advertising package (Beautiful Bizarre Magazine: 1 million+ followers across all social media platforms).
• Profile listing [including artwork gallery] on the Beautiful Bizarre Artist Directory for 12 months. The go-to platform for artists, curators and collectors to discover exceptional artists and explore their work.
• A year’s worth of inspiration – a print subscription to Beautiful Bizarre Magazine.

3rd prize winner will receive:

• $750 USD cash, generously donated by Principle Gallery, a fine art gallery with branches in Alexandria, VA & Charleston, SC, focusing on contemporary realism since 1994.
• 4 month social media advertising package (Beautiful Bizarre Magazine: 1 million+ followers across all social media platforms).
• Profile listing [including artwork gallery] on the Beautiful Bizarre Artist Directory for 12 months. The go-to platform for artists, curators and collectors to discover exceptional artists and explore their work.
• A year’s worth of inspiration – a print subscription to Beautiful Bizarre Magazine.

The Winners in each Award category and the Musonium Grand Prize Award Winner will be invited to participate in ‘Paracosmic Escape’ exhibition at Modern Eden Gallery in San Francisco, United States later this year, alongside 70+ of the world’s best contemporary representational artists! ‘Paracosmic Escape’ is an international group exhibition Curated by: Beautiful Bizarre Magazine, with Art Direction/Theme Conceptualization by: Musonium Gallery.

‘Paracosmic Escape’ explores themes of retrospection, introspection, and complex relationships with the real world, where internal gateways offer a place of sanctuary to heal from and provide explanation to the effects of reality. ~ Keeley Gerard (Art Director of Musonium Gallery)

Congratulations to the 2024 Beautiful Bizarre Art Prize 33PA Emerging Artist Award Winners: Senescence, Ross Takahashi & Nadine Tralala!

3rd Prize Winner

Senescence

Currently resides: Australia

“Theseus”, Marker (Copic and Generic), Colored Pencil, Ballpoint, gel and felt tip on rag stock paper, 81.4 x 118.9 cm

Born in Adelaide Australia Senescence began informally illustrating in black and white pencil at an early age, before entering the visual arts industry at eighteen. Following my various roles in the commercial graphic arts sector he completed a psychology and then medical degree, ultimately specialising in the teaching of surgical and medical anatomy at the University of Adelaide. After over fifteen years in Senescence academic role, and just before the birth of his daughter, he was diagnosed with a brain tumor as well as several other health concerns. Unable to return to work Senescence have come full circle to his art origins. He has never created art for himself nor outside of the commercial space, and so he begins this part of his life a new, merging several decades of experience into one.

“Theseus”: Stemming from Greek mythology, the Ship of Theseus grew to be a thought experiment as to whether an object is the same after having had all its original components replaced. The idea has been and continues to be explored in the context of human identity, as well as individual anatomy and physiology. From a cellular level and possibly more we are all something new today, with most of the body being replaced with analogous parts at varying speeds. The same question has and will likely be asked when medical technology enables a lot more of our bodies to be augmented. Arguably you of now will never be again, so what features most make you – you.

2nd Prize Winner

Ross Takahashi

Currently reside: United States

“Birds of a Feather Nesting Together”, Cast Bronze, patina, 26 x 16 x 14 in

Ross Takahashi is a Japanese-American sculptor and art educator. His work focuses on human cognition, ecological impacts, and our current climate crisis. Ross holds a B.A. in Psychology from Nevada State University. His work takes from research in ecology and psycho-social systems of transgenerational threads of permanence, and evanescence. Each piece is derived from a basis of conceptual, and empirical research, and explores these topics through a magical realistic lens. Hyper realistic details help bridge the gap of our relationship with nature, and human-related forms. Metals are an important medium in his practice, as they represent immortality, and a means for lasting preservation of temporary elements.

“Birds of a Feather Nesting Together”: A flock of birds building a children’s chair as a nest for their and our young. Created as a magical realistic take on ecological memory interwoven with post generational trauma impacted by humanity on the world surrounding us. This delicate piece is made purely out of bronze, with patina and polish.

1st Prize Winner

Nadine Tralala

Currently resides: Germany

“I Was Stone”, Oil on panel, 50 x 60 cm

Nadine Tralala is a figurative oil painter based in Germany. Her work blends classical techniques with modern surrealism and creates a dreamlike atmosphere, offering the viewer a moment of calm in a chaotic world. She is known for her bold and vivid color palette, which makes her otherworldly figures seem to radiate with an ethereal glow. Nadine aims to make people feel comfort and peace through her art, like the warm embrace of a long-lost friend. “I inhale the world and paint a healed version of it.”

“I Was Stone”: Pays tribute to a resilience that is as unyielding as stone. Even in our darkest moments, in the deepest of nights, an inner light shines within each of us. The woman in my painting glows from within, she herself lightens up the darkness surrounding her. With two lambs by her side, symbolizing rebirth and new beginnings, she awaits the dawn to break.