A new exhibition in New York presents the visionary artwork of the late Syd Mead

Future Pastime is the title of a new show in New York looking at forty years of the visionary art of Syd Mead, one of the most influential future-facing concept artists in cinema. Although he trained at the Art Center School in Los Angeles (now ArtCenter College of Design in Pasadena) and began his career in the auto industry, Mead (1933-2019) is probably best known for his work as a production designer and ‘visual futurist’.

Working on films like Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), TRON (1982), and, most famously of all, Blade Runner (1982), Mead brought the future to life, splicing technically accurate, high dynamic gouache renderings of future technology in a realistic, lived-in world.

Curated by Elon Solo and William Corman, Future Pastime focuses on Syd Mead’s lifestyle imagery, richly hedonistic worlds – whether human or alien – with a dynamic, utopian sheen. Of course, that approach could also be twisted around – the layered accumulations of generations of tech, grimy and half-functioning that characterised the sets and vehicles of Blade Runner, for example.

Future Pastime invites you to experience ‘a leisurely drive through a cerulean-blue interstellar highway, a dog race featuring mechanical canines soaring above skyscrapers, [and] a dinner party where guests don sleek, metallic couture.’ Toweringly influential, with a raw analogue talent that translated seamlessly into the physical world of sets and props, Mead’s vision has never been surpassed by the CGI imagery that followed, let alone the tissue-thin imitations of AI.

Mead was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1933. After a spell in the army, he went to college, where his design training was suffused with his love for science fiction and his seemingly uncanny ability to visualise these worlds. In 1959, he joined Ford Motor Company’s Advanced Styling Studio, at a time when the American automobile led the world in its bold embrace of technology and optimism for the future.

Other commissions followed, including work for U.S. Steel, for whom he visualised promotional catalogues and a 1961 book, Innovations, that presented a gung-ho vision of an industrialised yet still utopian and ultimately human world. It was inevitable that his cinematic thinking would be eventually recognised by Hollywood, but not before he had worked a similar magic for other multinationals, including Chrysler, General Electric, Phillips, Sony, Minolta, Toyota, Dentsu, and Honda.

The Star Trek gig was followed by TRON and Blade Runner, where Mead worked closely with Ridley Scott, shaping every facet of a highly credible future, steam and smog-shrouded Los Angeles. Other films that benefitted from an injenection of his conceptual vision include Aliens (1986), Elysium (2013), Tomorrowland (2015) and, appropriately enough, Denis Villeneuve’s 2017 sequel, Blade Runner 2049.

The show offers a rare opportunity to see Syd Mead’s original artworks and revisit the imaginary worlds created by one of the great futurists.

Syd Mead, Future Pastime, 534 West 26th Street, New York from March 27 - May 21, FuturePastime.net, SydMead.com, @Syd_Mead