The art of the fantastic gives vision to our dreaded nightmares and our most fervent hopes. Stories of fantasy and science fiction have risen from the quaint traditions of the tribal storyteller through children’s fables and pulp magazines to dominate today’s cultural mainstream. Through their use on the covers of bestselling books, to their appearance in blockbuster movies, TV shows and videogames, illustrative images play a central role in the appeal and popular acceptance of the fantastic narrative and the Society of Illustrators is pleased to celebrate this rite of passage with an exhibition of more than 100 examples of the genre’s finest artistic works. MASTERS OF THE FANTASIC encompasses a full range of otherworldly images—from dragons, specters and demons, to the far reaches of deep space—in the form of paintings, drawings and sculpture, highlighting the works of the artistic innovators who have given shape and substance to the world’s most imaginative kinds of storytelling.

A reception will be held on Friday, March 29th.

Included in the exhibition are the works of the following artists:

Boris Artzybasheff

Wayne Barlowe

Julie Bell

John Berkey

Rick Berry

Hannes Bok

Chesley Bonestell

Joseph Clement Coll

Kinuko Y. Craft

Peter de Sève

Leo and Diane Dillon

Vincent Di Fate

Dean Ellis

Ed Emshwiller

Virgil Finlay

Robert R. Foster

Frank Frazetta

Fred Freeman, Jr.

Donato Giancola

Jeffrey Jones

Kam Mak

Everett Raymond Kinstler

Paul Lehr

Gregory Manchess

Robert T. McCall

Winsor McCay

Harold W. McCauley

Rowena Morrill (*)

John Jude Palencar

Willy Pogany

Richard Powers

Don Ivan Punchatz

Hubert Rogers

Charles Santore

John Schoenherr

Murray Tinkelman

Boris Vallejo

Michael Whelan