Wiley Wallace‘s meticulous canvases depict a peculiar universe in which fantastical things happen, usually in nature with kids involved. They suggest an unholy mashup of Jeff Vandermeer’s Southern Reach trilogy and Jeff Nichols’ 2016 movie Midnight Special. (Why Wiley’s work reminds of works by people named “Jeff” is as yet not clear to me.)

Wallace’s art is what you’d get if you tried to create a Spielbergian “kids in peril” classic on mescaline. Interestingly, Wallace says that he uses his own children as models for the characters in his paintings. A press release states that “at times realistic depictions deliquesce into abstract blurs of bright colors, while at others subtle apparitions make their way into otherwise unassuming everyday scenes.” Yeah, they “deliquesce”......

At any rate, I hereby nominate Wallace to be given the contract for the key art of Stranger Things season 3. (Season 2 of Stranger Things starts in just a few weeks, by the way.)
 

 
More of Wallace’s paintings after the jump….....