Simon Stålenhag

Simon Stålenhag, born in 1984, basically redefined modern sci-fi art with a style that’s impossible to imitate. You look at his work—Tales from the Loop, Things from the Flood—and it’s this wild mashup of retro tech and everyday Scandinavian or American life. It’s like, you’re staring at a kids’ soccer game and there’s this hulking, rusted robot casually hanging out in the field. His stuff doesn’t just look cool, it actually gets under your skin, you know? There’s always something a little off, a little uncanny, but it’s grounded in places you recognize. People everywhere are obsessed. I mean, it’s not every day you see an artist who can make you nostalgic for a future that never even happened. That’s Stålenhag’s magic trick. He’s got this knack for taking those quiet, boring landscapes—think snow-covered Swedish suburbs, endless American highways—and dropping in something surreal, like a herd of mechanical beasts or a floating monolith. You start to wonder if maybe you missed something weird in your own backyard. It’s not just fans who are into it. Critics lost their minds when Tales from the Loop landed, enough that The Guardian tossed it on their list of the “10 Best Dystopias,” right up there with Kafka’s The Trial and Gattaca. That’s some serious company. Stålenhag isn’t just drawing pictures; he’s building whole worlds, making you question what’s real and what’s possible every time you look.