TRIBECA—A new exhibition at the Corman Gallery brings the late designer Syd Mead to New York for the first time in a solo show. Titled Future Pastime, the retrospective collects nearly four decades of work from one of Hollywood’s most influential yet least widely known visual futurists.
Mead, who died in 2019, is best known for his conceptual designs for films like Blade Runner, Tron, Aliens, and Star Trek: The Motion Picture, as well as an acclaimed conceptual car designer (Early in his career, Mead worked at Ford’s Advanced Styling Center, contributing ideas that helped shape the 1960s Thunderbird and the Mustang’s design language.) He envisioned entire cities and integrated transport systems, all in a highly stylized world that would define the 1980s.
What set Mead apart was his commitment to plausible futures. His cities, vehicles, and interiors weren’t pure fantasy; they were anchored in physics and human behavior. The exhibition highlights his hyper unique kind of 80s realism and imagination through a series of gouache paintings, many of which have never been shown.
The images on view are striking in their clarity and complexity. In one, a metallic transport glides through a gleaming urban core. In another, a crowd gathers under ambient lighting in a plaza that could exist in 2085. Color, symmetry, and perspective all play key roles in Mead’s approach, which mirrors the 1960s futurism in a very 1980s way.
Curated by Elon Solo and William Corman, Future Pastime exhibits Mead not just as a cinematic visionary, but as a prolific multi-disciplinary visual artist. The show argues for his place in the canon of late 20th-century American design—someone whose work preceded a major cultural shifts and aesthetic.
Syd Mead: Future Pastime is on view at the Corman Gallery, 94 White Street, New York, through July 28. Open Tuesday to Saturday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.
