Welcome To Sci-fi Suburbia - Simon Stålenhag's Futuristic Transformations Of Mundane Landscapes

Swedish artist Simon Stålenhag puts a fantastical spin on the rural Nordic lands of his childhood. Inspired by sci-fi and films from his youth, his paintings conjure up an uncanny place where retro-looking robots and buildings dot the landscape, sharing the space with people dressed in 80s fashion and vehicles from the same period. The result is pure retro cool.

It captures that sense of adventure and longing that films like Spielberg's E.T., Close Encounters of the Third Kind and J.J. Abrams's Super 8 conjure up. "The only difference in the world of my art and our world is that ... ever since the early 20th century, attitudes and budgets were much more in favor of science and technology." the artist has told The Verge.

Plans to compile his "paintings from a childhood that never was and a future that could have been" into an English language book will now go ahead thanks to a successful Kickstarter campaign.

His retro-futurist aesthetic is one that's admired by famous directors like District 9's Neil Bloomkamp and it's also reported that he's working with Swedish screenwriter Karin Arrhenius on a film or TV series based on his artwork.

If you're wondering what that might look like, below are two student animations which bring his images to life.

[gallery ids="27710,27711,27712,27713,27714,27715,27716,27717,27718,27719,27720,27721,27722,27723,27724,27725,27726,27727,27728,27729,27730,27731,27732,27733,27734,27735,27736,27737,27738,27739,27740,27741,27742,27743,27744,27745,27746,27747,27748,27749,27750,27751,27752,27753,27754,27755,27756,27757,27758,27759,27760,27761,27762,27763,27764,27765,27766,27767,27768,27769,27770,27771,27772,27773,27774,27775,27776,27777,27778,27779,27780,27781,27782,27783" orderby="rand"]