The Swedish artist Simon Stålenhag paints landscapes and places in between a near past - the eighties consisting of old cars and vans Mercedes and a possible future made of architecture and objects that do not yet exist (but which already seem old and rusted by time).

The worlds that creates recall memories of childhood, the years lived in rural areas of Sweden and the films that were seen at the time. Old future architectures arise from the rural landscapes of the desolate and dismal Sweden, under the gaze disillusioned humans.

The series, consisting of several boards, is drawn with a graphics pen to the computer. The Digital Ink simulates an old oil painting, adding an even more bleak and unforgiving effect. All designs are published on its website, where prints of the works are for sale.

Tales from the Loop

Simon Stålenhag’s Tales from the Loop is a wildly successful crowd-funded project that takes viewers on a surprising sci-fi journey through various country and city landscapes―from small towns in Sweden and the deserts of Nevada to the bitter chill of Siberia―where children explore and engage with abandoned robots, vehicles, and machinery large and small, while dinosaurs and other creatures wander our roads and fields. Stålenhag’s paintings and stories take place in an alternate version of Sweden in the ’80s and ’90s, primarily in the countryside of Mälaröarna, a string of islands just west of Stockholm, and how this reality came about: the development of the Loop, a large particle accelerator and the side effects of the massive project. These incredibly captivating works and accompanying text capture perhaps a not-too-distant reality that is both haunting and imminent: addressing the many ways developing technology and nature can create havoc and wonder in our world―plus, its impact on the next generation. This is the English edition of the first book in Swedish that sold out in its initial printing. This Art Book is currently available on Amazon.

Simon Stålenhag is a Swedish illustrator and designer who tells an imaginary society in which robots, dinosaurs and humans coexist. Stålenhag seems to dig into a next memory, combining nostalgia and fantasy. His robots seem to have existed, the snow seems to have already melted in the sun.

www.simonstalenhag.se