Hector

A figure in a red coat stands on an old cement block standing in the middle of a marsh, their back to us, a small case in one hand. A peculiar old piano stands abandoned, surrounded by vegetation. The sun hangs low and pale behind the haze, bleached to a flat disc, and the whole scene doubles itself in the water below. Far off to the right, a thin structure breaks the horizon, lost in the mist.

Simon Stålenhag is a Swedish painter who built his reputation on scenes like this one: ordinary Scandinavian landscapes with something slightly off lurking in them. His books, including Tales from the Loop and The Electric State, pair flat fields and suburban houses with abandoned robots and strange machinery, and the mix has been adapted for television and games. What is interesting here is how little he gives away. The strange machinery stays offstage, and we are left with a figure, a floating home, and a lot of fog. Stålenhag works digitally, painting with the texture and light of photography, which is why the reeds in the foreground and the reflection on the water feel like something glimpsed from a passing boat rather than invented at a desk.