Spectrum: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art

The Spectrum 27 Call for Entries opens on October 15, 2019. This is an invitation to all professional and student artists, art directors, publishers and artist representatives to submit entries to the 27th Annual Spectrum International Competition for Fantastic Art. All art works in all mediums embracing the themes of science fiction, fantasy, horror, and the surreal are eligible for this show. Fantastic Art can be subtle or obvious, traditional or off-the-wall, painted, sculpted, done digitally or photographed: there is no unacceptable way to create art and there are no set rules that say one piece qualifies while another does not. Imagination and skill are what matters. Work chosen by the jury will be printed in full color in the Spectrum annual, the peer-selected "best of the year" collection for the fantastic arts.

Any published or unpublished art may be submitted in the appropriate category. Work must have been finished or first published in 2019.

Entries must be received and paid for no later than January 23, 2020. The judging will take place shortly after the deadline.

Each accepted entry will be reproduced in full color and given complete credit in the twenty-seventh Spectrum annual; the contact information for all artists or their agent/representatives will be printed in the artist index. The person who has submitted an accepted entry will receive a complimentary copy of the annual. International residents are required to pay shipping. Tear sheets are not available. Additional copies may be purchased at a discount.

Announcement from Cathy & Arnie Fenner

Spectrum: The Best in Contemporary Fantastic Art #27 has just been released by Flesk Publications and this is traditionally the time of year when the Call For Entries for Spectrum 28 would normally open for submissions.

But as we all know, 2020 has not been a normal year for anyone…and we’re not out of it yet. As announced previously, after seven great years as editor and publisher John Fleskes decided to step away from Spectrum to pursue other projects and interests; as we began work on transitioning the competition and book back to our leadership, the pandemic simultaneously began to spread around the globe. Needless to say, since March of 2020 COVID-19 has taken a toll on everyone emotionally—particularly to those that have lost family or friends to the virus—thrown a monkey wrench into logistics and planning, shuttered businesses, cost millions of jobs, and had an enormously negative financial impact on the world. And that of course all translates to a negative impact on the publishing and entertainment industries, on the arts community, on the readers and fans—on literally everyone who make Spectrum possible. Factor in social, civil, and political upheavals and it’s safe to say that everybody has struggled or been hurt or in some way experienced unhappiness in 2020 and it would be tone-deaf for us to pretend otherwise.

With all that in mind, we believe the responsible thing for us to do is to delay opening Spectrum 28 for submissions until after the first of the year. A revised website is in the works as well as updates to the social media platforms. Though we know everyone has come to expect the Call For Entries to roll around at the same time each year like clockwork, we’ve actually been talking with our Advisory Board for some weeks about changing the dates (among other things) as a way to better serve the arts community going forward: there will be more announcements forthcoming, including our Call For Entries poster artist and jury.

Naturally Spectrum 27 and all the previous in-print volumes will continue to be available from Flesk Publications and to the book trade via Publishers Group West.

But in the mean time, if you read Tweets or see social media reports or hear rumors to the contrary, please help us set everyone straight: Spectrum’s not going away. Spectrum 28 will happen. And it’s going to be more vibrant and as exciting than ever. To paraphrase Mark Twain, any reports of Spectrum’s demise are greatly exaggerated. Watch for the announcement and we’ll hope to see everyone’s work when Spectrum 28 opens for entries. If you have any questions or concerns, ask us: we’re not going anywhere.

Trust us.

Cathy Fenner & Arnie Fenner
Directors/Spectrum Fantastic Art LLC